Demonic Storm
by RaisingArizona
Summary: Kasumi Imai, an Exorcist who prefers working with her wolf familiar Conri by her side, is soon sent back to True Cross Academy to help train the newest addition, Rin Okumura. Neither one of them knows what to expect when Kasumi's hazy beginnings start to come to light, causing them to become partners as both Gehenna and Assiah tries to take them as their own.
1. Assiah and Gehenna

**So I decided on a whim again that I might start up a Blue Exorcist story since I'm rewatching it again. I love the show. There hasn't been a cool female Demon yet, so I thought why not! Let's have one with a tricky background! So, depending on how this is received, I may or may not add more chapters on here. This chapter is basically an introduction to the characters, two being OCs. Hopefully all of you reading it enjoy!**

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**Chapter 1: Assiah and Gehenna**

Ever since I could first remember existing, life had always been tricky. My past was always one that frightened people, especially since it was so vague and hazy. My beginnings were not something I approved of anymore, so I always tried to look forward instead, keeping sight of the future that always haunted me. I guess that was what I deserved when I began life in a blaze of light.

The world of Assiah was tricky to understand, but the realm of Gehenna always held a simple intricacy I could decipher. Being an Exorcist, I could always anticipate my targets' next move. I took many missions that kept me away from True Cross Academy and a large amount of humans, but I was finally called back in after finished my last one, which was tracking down and killing a particularly nasty Demon that liked possessing people in a small town. I wasn't told what the reason was for coming back, but I didn't particularly care because I knew it would keep me in True Cross Campus Town for quite some time. I stood on huge hill a few miles south of the bustling city and sighed.

Long, blue black hair lightly moved in the breeze coming up from the hill, bangs framing my face and covering my eyes whenever the wind moved just right. I stared down at the city with sharp, golden eyes, watching the movement below with disinterest. The long sleeved, white shirt that was typical for those in the academy was unbuttoned except for one near my chest, the fabric blowing open with the wind along with the necktie that was loosely tied around the collar. I adjusted the jacket absentmindedly before fiddling with the silver belt around my waist, tilting it down at an angle so it dipped down past the skirt. I pulled on the black gladiator style boots before stretching my back slightly, adjusting the chain that was wrapped around my body that kept my sword strapped to my back.

I heard a soft growl behind me to see a large black wolf with mercury colored eyes approaching from the other side of the hill, seeming almost as smug over being back as I was. This wolf was my familiar, always walking by my side ever since I could remember. He was the one stable thing about my past I could rely upon, even though he didn't know how we came to be either. He walked up to my side and pressed his flank against my hip, reminding me again how big he was in comparison to normal wolves.

_"Kasumi,"_ I heard him say softly in my mind so he wouldn't startle me.

"Yeah, Conri?"

_"Have you any thoughts on why they've called us back? You're an Upper 2__nd__ Class Knight Meister after all and we've always been given as much leeway as your mentor."_

"I can only guess that Mephisto has come up with some new way to torment me after the last time I insulted his intelligence," I said before beginning to walk down the hill towards a train station below with Conri at my side. "You'd think he'd learn to stop acting so stupid around me."

_"You need to be careful around him," _Conri said sternly. _"He's the second strongest Demon King, remember? The only other Demon King that is stronger than him is Lucifer."_

"Not counting Satan, right?"

_"Of course. Anyway, if you keep taunting Mephisto like this, he'll find out our secret. He already knows part of it. We don't need him finding out more than that."_

"Fine, I'll behave," I grumbled a little before finally reaching the train station.

At first, the employees and commuters were instantly worried when I walked in with my familiar. When they saw the pin on my jacket that signified my status as an Exorcist, they slightly calmed down enough for the both of us to pass. Luckily enough, we ended up with our own train car due to the fact that no one wanted to share one with us. We were allowed to watch the scenery go by in peace as True Cross Academy drew nearer. I still wondered what it was that Mephisto wanted and knew I was definitely in trouble when I saw a large limousine waiting for us in the parking lot, the flamboyant Demon King of Time patiently waiting outside of it so that we couldn't sneak off without him noticing. We walked over to him and he gave us a bright smile.

"Kasumi Imai!" he called out before bowing exaggeratedly low, his hat nearly falling from the top of his head. "Welcome back to True Cross Academy!" Conri growled deeply, displeased with being ignored. "Ah, yes, welcome to you as well, Conri! I didn't forget about you!"

"Do you intend on telling us why we're here now or when we get back to the academy?"

"When we get back to the academy, of course!" he laughed before opening the door to the limo for us. "If I told you now, there's a good chance that you could just try to leave!"

Conri and I shared a look of exasperation before I got into the limo, Conri settling down on the floor in the center where he had the most room. Mephisto followed after us, shutting the door behind him and sitting down on a seat at the very back just before the limo began to move. Mephisto tried to hold idle chatter with me, but I wasn't having it. He knew that I just wanted to know why I was sent to come back and wanted to torment me even more.

Twenty minutes had passed before we finally made it all the way to the office buildings where Mephisto's huge office resided. He led me along up several flights of stairs and down many hallways, regardless of the fact that I tried to tell him I didn't need this. He ignored me until we finally reached the huge doors that he pushed open. The only thing that hadn't changed about his office was the fact that there was someone already waiting inside.

Sitting there with an extremely irritated look for having to wait so long was a guy around my age. He had dark blue hair that was a little lighter than mine and royal blue eyes that burned with annoyance. He wore the uniform belonging to True Cross Academy and the pin on his jacket told me that he was a Page. Mephisto walked towards his desk and beckoned for me to sit in the chair beside the Page, which I did rather reluctantly.

"I figured that I would get the introductions out of the way now," he said before nodding in the direction of the Page. "This is our newest member of True Cross Academy, Rin Okumura. His twin brother, Yukio, is a Middle 1st Class Meister already after joining a few months ago. Quite the impressive feat, wouldn't you say?"

"He's quite young to make it so far in the time span he's had," I said as Conri settled down by my feet, the Page named Rin immediately looking down at the huge wolf with slight curiosity. "I remember seeing him around the academy a few times while I was here."

Mephisto looked now at Rin, who finally looked away at Conri after the wolf growled lightly. "Rin, this is Kasumi Imai, Upper 2nd Class Knight Meister. Both of you share something in common."

"Oh yeah? And what's that?" Rin asked, speaking up for the first time. I then noticed something very surprising as I watched him, feeling a cold chill run down my spine when I realized what this was all about.

"That's an easy question to answer," Mephisto laughed. "You're both Demons!"

Instantly, I could see Rin looking over at me in shock, his gaze sliding along my form as he finally saw the same things I saw in him. He noticed that my ears, which I usually kept hidden under my long hair, were slightly pointed and that my golden eyes had slits for pupils. I sighed a little, showing off my slightly elongated canines, before standing up. I slowly lifted up one end of my skirt to slightly show off the tail I had wrapped around my hips, one that was covered in black scales and was sharply pointed at the end. I also lifted up my hair to show him the feathers that were mixed with my hair at the nape of my neck, blue black and nearly undetectable.

"Are you… a daughter of Satan?" Rin asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, Kasumi," Mephisto asked, his eyes blazing deviously. "Are you a relative of Satan's?"

"I'm my own entity," I said before sitting back down in the chair. "I was created, not born. I don't have parents and the only family I have is Conri." I reached down to scratch behind the wolf's ears, Conri tilting his head to the side for me to get better access.

"Who created you?" Rin asked.

"I wonder that same thing all the time," I told him, "but right now, I'm still wondering why I was called back so soon after my mission."

"Also an easy topic," Mephisto stated before standing up. "He's new at controlling his Demonic side, I'm too busy with working to keep this place running, and you're the only Demon I know that is within reach and handy. You're going to be training him!"

"What!?" Rin and I both exclaimed at the same time, standing up simultaneously and glaring at the man on the other side of the desk.

"I don't want to work with her!" Rin yelled. "I don't even know her!"

"You barely know anyone here, you dumbass!" I reminded him before looking back at Mephisto. "I'm not a teacher! I can't just train someone like this!"

"The both of you are just going to have to deal!" Mephisto laughed. "It's time for you both to leave my office now because there won't be any more discussions on the matter! I want you both to head down to the lobby where Yukio is waiting by now. He'll lead you both to your dormitory."

With that, there was a flash of light and Mephisto disappeared, making me growl in frustration. Conri stood up and all three of us walked out of the room. Rin had an angry look about him and I knew I had to have one that mirrored his. I didn't have any problems with him as of yet, but I didn't work with other people. I had a hard time keeping my Demonic side reigned in when sparring, so I always chose not to use it unless it was absolutely necessary. I wasn't sure how this was going to end but I knew that I would have to be careful with him.

"How long have you been a Demon?" he asked, snapping me from my thoughts.

"As long as I can remember," I said nonchalantly. "What about you?"

"A week," he said, a strange expression forming before it was snuffed out. "I was human for fifteen years. Last week was my sixteenth birthday and the day I used the Koma Sword to release my Demon powers. I only did it in the first place to try to save my dad yet I still failed."

"Your dad?" I asked, hiding my curiosity.

"His name was Shiro Fujimoto and he was the priest that ran the monastery Yukio and I lived at. He raised us like we were his own and he tried his best to make sure I was brought up like a human." He looked like he might say something else, something that had to do with the guilt and regret I saw appear for a split second, but then he snapped his jaw shut and we continued walking without saying a word until we reached the lobby.

Waiting there near the doors was a stern looking individual that had a few similarities to Rin, reminding me of the fact that they were fraternal twins. I was certain that the world was not ready for identical twins, so some higher being saved us one troublesome issue. His hair was a dark brown and his eyes were a much lighter shade of blue in comparison to his brother's. He also had to wear glasses to see. From what I remembered in the past, he was light hearted and kind. Now, he was a blank slate, his eyes blazing in annoyance until he spotted me. He gave me a small bow out of respect, one that I returned.

"Welcome back, Kasumi Imai," he said. "It's nice to finally meet you."

"Please, you can call me Kas," I told him. "Something tells me that our paths are going to cross a lot now."

"That's right," he said, the corners of his mouth turning up ever so slightly before his stern expression shifted back into place. "Right, back to business. Time to lead you both to the dormitory we'll be staying in."

As we walked out of the office building, I spoke again. "I don't get my own dormitory again?"

"The dorm that you used when you were training to become an Exorcist is what we'll be using now," Yukio explained. "We can't have Rin exposing the fact that he's a Demon by living in the dorms with the other students."

Rin turned his gaze down at the ground, an irritated and confused air about him as he stayed silent the entire way. _"I wonder what's going on here?"_ Conri said flatly, watching Rin with sharp mercury eyes.

Rin instantly straightened up before glaring down at my familiar. "Mind your own business, you nosy mutt."

Both Conri and I were growling at that point, startling Rin for a second before he stood his ground. He tried to move closer for reasons I didn't understand and that was when Yukio intervened. "Knock it off, Rin. If you try to fight her, I won't be able to help you. She's not an easy one to calm down once she's angry."

He seemed to consider what he was about to do before taking a step back. "Good choice," I told him before walking ahead with Conri. "Insult my familiar again and I'll make you pay for it."

The rest of the walk to the old dorm was also spent in silence from my end. I could hear Yukio and Rin speaking in hushed tones, ones that Conri and I picked up on easily once we began to pay attention. "… So just leave it alone, Rin," I heard Yukio softly say, only catching the last part of his end of the conversation.

"I'm not going to leave it alone, Yukio," he growled. "You've ignored me since the funeral. You can't seriously blame me for his death."

"I do blame you. If it wasn't for you, he'd still be alive. You shouldn't have unleashed your Demon powers."

"But it wasn't—!"

"I don't want to hear your excuses," Yukio said, sounding furious now. "We're done discussing the matter." I could hear him walking faster and turned my head to the side to see him walking next to me now. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Rin following behind us, frustration etched across his face. When Yukio spoke to me, I turned back to him to pay attention to his words. "So how was the mission you took that kept you away for so long?"

"It was rather lengthy and required finesse just to complete," I told him. "The Demon was a Shapeshifter that liked possessing the townsfolk. When it thought it was going to be caught, I would leave its host and change shapes to escape."

"That would explain why you had to stay for so long," he said with a nod. "You'd need to know how the people there acted so you could spot the Demon."

"That's correct," I said before we went quiet again. It was as I could begin to see the old dormitory that I spoke again. "It's strange to be back here. I haven't been back in a long time."

"Why is that?"

"I don't play well with others," I said with a laugh.

"Guess you and Rin will get along well then," he said flatly.

I smirked a little, hearing Conri's laughter before we finally made it to the dormitory. This was what we classified as home to us since this was all we ever knew. I placed my hand lightly on Conri's back before we walked up the steps. Yukio said that he would show Rin their room on the east wing and that we would meet up for dinner in the dorm kitchen just before nightfall. I had a feeling that he was also going to take him to his first class at Cram School. I yawned a little before heading up the stairs to the top floor and toward the west wing. When I finally made it to my door and pulled my keys from my pocket, I opened the door and walked inside.

The whole room was larger than most of the other dorm rooms, making me thing that this one had to be the floor manager's room in years past. The walls were painted with light colors that kept the room bright and a nice bed adjacent to one wall farthest from the door. As for the contents of the room, it was rather barren like the other rooms. I didn't have a lot of possessions since I was never in True Cross Academy for long and it made me feel like the room represented my life perfectly.

I walked over to the closet before opening it to grab everything I would need to take a bath and walked back out of the room to head to the girls' bath. Once there, I pulled off my clothes and headed towards the bath that was similar in appearance to a hot spring. I placed the towel near the edge on a bench, along with the shampoo and conditioner that I considered to be my favorite. Just as I had settled down in the water with my back leaning against the edge and my arms up along the sides of the bath itself, I could hear the sounds of running along the hallway.

Conri growled lightly before moving over to the door to block the path of whoever was coming closer. The footsteps stopped for thirty seconds before it began again, heading in our direction before the doors to the bath were flung open. Conri slowly walked closer to the door with a deeper growl and I turned my head to look back at the intruder, noticing that it was Rin. He looked up from the growling wolf and saw me in the water, a faint blush appearing along his cheeks.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to just barge in like this," he said nervously. "Yukio wanted to me to let you know that we are about to leave for Cram School. He also said that you were welcome to come along and observe."

"I appreciate the offer, but honestly I need to get cleaned up before getting some rest. I haven't slept well in quite some time."

"Alright," he said quietly. "Well, we'll see you at dinner then."

He soon walked back out of the room and left me alone with Conri. _"He's obviously not a well-mannered Demon,"_ the wolf said before he ran over to the water and jumped in the middle with a splash. I shrieked, laughing as he splashed me some more with the water in the bath.

"You're not much better than he is!" I yelled before doing the same back as revenge.

It wasn't long before I was done getting clean. I loved the cherry scented shampoo and conditioner I always bought since it was my favorite scent. I dried off and got dressed in my uniform before gathering my things to head back to my room. Once I had everything put back in its regular places, I went over to the bed and collapsed on the mattress with Conri taking up half of it. He and I always ended up in a tangled mess when we woke up, usually with me laying my head on him somehow. I yawned a little before laying my head on the pillow and falling asleep with Conri's comforting warmth nearby.

When we woke up, I looked up at the window to see that the sun was slowly setting. Conri and I yawned simultaneously before we got out of the bed, heading to the door and opening it to see Rin standing there with his hand raised to knock on the door. He looked a bit sheepish at having been caught by me and he took a step back.

"Yukio sent me again. He said that I should go get you so we can all eat dinner together."

"Sounds good to me," I said sleepily, rubbing my eyes a little. "Let's go, Conri."

"Conri?" Rin asked curiously.

_"That would be me,"_ the wolf beside me told him, glaring up at Rin indignantly.

Rin looked a little hesitant then and it took me a few second to realize that he didn't actually know where the dorm kitchen was. I chuckled a little before leading the way with Conri. I heard him make an odd noise but ignored it as we went down the hall towards the steps. Down a floor we went and walked down a few hallways before the dorm kitchen immediately came into view. Yukio was already waiting there for us, sitting at the table that was already piled high with many different kinds of food.

"Did you make that?" I asked him curiously as I took the seat across from him, Rin sitting next to me.

"Of course he didn't," Rin grumbled. "He can't cook to save his own life."

"Out of the two of us, Rin can cook the best," Yukio said with a smile. "He didn't make all of this though. It was here when I got here."

"The dorm chef worked his magic then," I said, laughing when they both gave me looks of confusion. "You haven't seen the dorm chef yet?"

"Did you know that there was someone else living in the dorm?" Rin asked Yukio.

"I didn't have a clue," Yukio said before they both settled their gazes on me as I piled food onto a plate for Conri. "Have _you_ seen the dorm chef?"

"Of course I have," I told them smugly, grinning down at my familiar as I place the plate on the floor for him to eat. "He and I are good friends. He always prepares the best food for me."

"Kasumi, where does the chef live here in the dorm?" Yukio asked, paling a little when I glared fiercely at him.

"I thought I told you to call me Kas?" I said, throwing a bread roll at his head and making Rin laugh.

"Alright, Kas, where does the chef live?" Rin asked me with a grin.

"You'll both just have to find out on your own," I said in a sing-song tone of voice, making them both groan.

Dinner wasn't a silent ordeal like the walk to the dorm hours before. Now, Rin and Yukio chatted amiably amongst each other, which led me to believe that they had finally cleared the tension between each other. If I had to guess, I would have guessed that the tension before had to do with the death of their father. Now that they had fixed the problem, they were back to normal brotherly behavior. It was good to see them acting happy instead of angry.

"You're both so happy now," I finally spoke up after finishing my plate of food.

They then shared twin questioning looks, as if they were debating on telling me what had happened between them before Rin said, "We just settled a bit of a disagreement. That's all it was."

"Oh, is that what we call a major dispute nowadays?" I teased, grinning when they looked wary again. "I may be a Demon, but I certainly wasn't born yesterday. This spat you had was something important, which is quite obvious so don't try to deny it."

"What do you think it could be?" Yukio asked hesitantly.

"I'm sure it has something to do with your deceased father and the fact that Rin is now officially a Demon," I told them before standing up from the table. The twins stared up at me in shock, not fully believing that I could guess so accurately. I then turned serious and focused my attention to Yukio, who straightened his back a little. "Mephisto never did tell me when Rin's training would start. Did he perhaps tell you?"

"He said that it was completely up to you. I guess that means you get to decide how his training program goes. Just try not to push him too hard. He'll rebel and won't learn a thing."

"I'll take that under consideration," I said with a smirk before beckoning Conri to follow so that we could walk out of the room together.

I sighed a little as I began to head toward the stairs to the roof. Conri knew how I felt about the night and we walked in silence until the doors to the roof came into sight. It was always a peaceful time for me and I would always find the highest place possible to watch the stars for a while. I reached the ledge on the side of the roof and climbed up, Conri settling down below on the concrete of the roof. I had barely begun to watch the stars when I heard the door to the roof slowly open, the person trying to be sneaky while trying to be silent.

"This better not be you stalking a fellow Demon," I said loud enough for the other person to know.

"How did you know it was me?" the voice of Rin could be heard.

"Demons have sharp ears," I told him simply before turning around to look at him. "Haven't you noticed that things you normally couldn't hear seem to be within range?"

"Is it the same with the other senses?" Rin asked curiously. When I nodded, he closed his eyes for a few seconds and I went back to looking up at the stars until I heard him sniffing the air slightly. "You used cherry shampoo when you were taking a bath. It mixes with your natural scent, which is quite similar to vanilla."

"Impressive," I said with a smirk, "and also correct. I have an extreme liking for cherry scented things."

We seemed to fall into silence for a while and I was busy relaxing in the comfort of night when I heard Rin sigh. I looked down to turn my gaze to him and saw that he seemed a bit distant. "I might as well tell you all about why Yukio was so angry with me," he said softly.

"You really don't have to. I can guess what's happened."

"No, this is something you should know because you might be able to understand," he told me before moving closer. "The night my father died, Satan somehow managed to possess him. After he summoned a Gehenna Gate to try and drag me into his realm, my father managed to somehow gain control for a few seconds to stab himself in the chest. We were both being dragged into the Gehenna Gate and that was when I decided to use the Koma Sword to unleash my Demon powers. All I wanted was to save my dad, yet I failed. Yukio blamed me completely for his death, even though I tried to explain that I did everything that I could. I guess he was still angry about that fact that I was the Demon who gave him his mashou." He looked at me hopefully before asking, "Have you done that to someone before?"

I knew that he just wanted to see if someone else had done the same thing so that he wouldn't feel so strange about it, and I gave him a sharp nod. "It was a very long time ago, but I've done it. There was this guy several years ago that wouldn't leave me alone, so I bit him and drew blood. Other Demons nearby took him down for me." He gave me a strange look and I sighed. "I wasn't very nice back then. I just wanted to be left alone and he wouldn't, so I bit him. It's not the worst thing I've done in the past."

"Do I even want to know what else there is?"

I closed my eyes for a few seconds, hearing screams in my mind and different images flickering past my eyes as I thought back to the past that I could actually remember. "Right now, I don't think you do. I need you to trust me a little if we're going to be training and I doubt that can happen if you're focusing on the past. I've stopped doing that a long time ago."

"Can I at least ask why you did those things?"

"I think it was because I was hurting," I explained softly. "When you're first created by Satan or a Demon King, you soon figure out after a certain time period who your kin is. By kin, I mean the Demon that created you. I never had that moment to know who created me and I felt lost for a very long time. I wandered about in Assiah, hoping that I would one day come across another Demon who would feel like home, but no such day came. It wasn't until I came across True Cross Academy that I had a hunch why I don't feel like I have any kin."

"What do you think the reason is?"

"Mephisto said that I might be the first Demon Queen in existence," I said with a wan smile. "He said that he went through the same thing, feeling like he didn't belong, but when he finally was brought before Satan he finally discovered his kin."

"Have you… seen Satan?"

"Twice," I told him before hopping down from the ledge to walk over to Rin. He seemed a little hesitant at being so close to me but didn't say a word because he knew he might learn more about the Demon that sired him. "It was about 500 years ago and I happened to be living out in a forest with Conri when we saw this blue light appear in between a stand of trees in the distance. We walked over to where it was coming from to see this white wolf completely covered in flames. When I saw its fragmented irises and the crazy grin that was out of place on a wolf, I knew I had to be dealing with Satan himself. The problem was that I didn't feel a thing still, which meant he couldn't possibly be my kin. The last time I saw him was during the Blue Night."

"I don't understand…" Rin said, looking confused.

"Neither do I," I said with a shrug. "There are a bunch of different things that I don't understand. I mean… how can I be here without kin?" His gaze shifted a little with some strange emotion but it wasn't one I understood. I looked back at Conri, the large wolf getting up and walking towards me, and we headed toward the stairs. "I think we'll start your training tomorrow, Rin. It will most likely be sometime after dinner, which means that you'll have plenty of time to do homework after your classes."

When I said the word "homework," he groaned in annoyance as I made it to the stairs, chuckling a little before heading down to my floor to get some more sleep before the beginning of another interesting day.


	2. Heavenly Visitor

**Hey, guys! I'm back with the latest installment of Demonic Storm! In the last chapter, you learn about Kas and Conri. In this chapter, I introduce two new OCs as well to keep things interesting, one of my own creation and another belonging to _Kuroi inazuma_ that you will get a slight glimpse of towards the end.They asked if I could add them to the story and I intend to, but I'll keep this OC as a total mystery. We always need the enigma character in a fanfic because it adds a certain flair to keep people guessing. Anyway, enough of my babbling on, enjoy the chapter!**

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**Chapter 2: Heavenly Visitor**

"What the hell?!" I heard a scream echo throughout the dorm, startling me awake as I soon bolted out the door with Conri by my side. We ran along until we finally made it out to the dorm kitchen to see Rin standing there in the middle of the room. He turned around to look at me before pointing at the table in disbelief. "Breakfast was already made for us! How is this guy doing all of this?!"

All I could do was laugh, his irritated and confused glances making me even more amused. I knew that this was going to be one of those mysteries that would end up driving him crazy and I wasn't about to lessen what I was sure would be one hell of a moment. He was still rather annoyed with me after we settled down from breakfast around the time Yukio arrived, going through the same emotional process that Rin went through. They kept trying to question me about the dorm chef, but I stayed silent as I ate my breakfast and then quickly bolted back to my room to change into my uniform. Since I was taking a few classes in this academy when I periodically arrived and they were higher ranked, they didn't care how I wore my uniform so long as I had it on.

When I went down to the ground floor, Rin was already waiting for me. "Yukio said that he had to leave early for his medical class, so you're going to have to show me around."

"Why didn't he do that yesterday?" I grumbled, snatching his class schedule from his hands and reading it.

"He was still really angry at me," Rin said with a shrug.

"Why are you taking such low level classes at the academy?" I wondered as I checked the list.

He snatched the paper back and growled, "Probably because I only have a junior high diploma!"

"Well, that would explain it," I said with a sheepish smile before grabbing him by the sleeve to hurry him out the door. "Come on, Rin. I've got half an hour before my first class starts and I fully intend on showing you around beforehand because I'm not going to be late for you."

"Take it easy, will ya?! You're going to rip the sleeve off and I'll probably get in trouble!"

"Oh, please. It's the first day of school for you. They'll look the other way. If they don't, say some crazy upperclassman ran into you in the hallway and ripped the jacket in the process."

We stayed silent as I rushed use along toward the main campus, Conri wandering around as we walked and lightly wagging his tail like a big dog. "Do they allow him on campus?" Rin finally asked when Conri loped back over to us after inspecting something he heard in the bushes on the edge of the path.

"The teachers may not understand why it's allowed, but Mephisto told him that anyone with a pin from the True Cross Order is allowed to keep their familiars in the classroom. He's assured them that they are well-behaved. Not only that, but the familiars look almost exactly like pets."

"What does Conri look like to a human?"

_"Depends on the human," _Conri said. _"Some say I look like an oversized German Shepherd or Siberian Husky. Personally, I'd say I look like a wolf and dog hybrid."_

"A Wolfdog?" Rin asked curiously.

"Yep, I just tell people that he's a high content Wolfdog and they don't freak out as much if I had told them he's a wolf."

_"Humans…." _Conri said with an amused sigh. _"Such a panicky race that can't handle things that are different."_

"That's not entirely true," Rin said with a slight frown. "I thought I handled the news well when I was told there was a world of Demons that mirrored our own."

"You're also not entirely human," I reminded him.

"Why does that have to matter?" he mumbled. "Demons are apathetic and don't care about who lives or dies. I'd rather be human than Demon because humanity is capable of great things."

"Or terrible things," I said lightly before turning my gaze back to his. "Don't forget that."

We were just about to reach the main square when Rin spoke again. "Why aren't you offended over the fact that I just insulted Demons?"

"Maybe it's because I'm more in tune with humanity than other Demons," I explained as we headed towards a large brick building. "I just don't… feel like a Demon most days, probably because I spend most of my time saving them rather than trying to destroy them."

"So I guess there are exceptions in every case," he said with a kind smile. "For a Demon, you're alright, Kas. I won't mind working with you."

Even though I tried to stop it, I felt the answering smile forming on my face, looking down so he couldn't see it and adjusting the silver chain around my body that kept the sword strapped on my back. "Alright, enough of the mushy talk," I said before pointing at the large brick building ahead of us. "That one is the building that you'll be spending most of your time in the first half of your school day. It's also the last one I'll be in before lunch, so I can lead you to the cafeteria if you wait for me in the lobby. Your first and last class of the morning will be here as well. The class in between is in the grey building to the right of it. Now, do you want me to show you were your last three classes are or do you want to wait until after lunch?"

"Let's just do it after lunch," Rin said as he adjusted the strap to the slip of fabric that covered his sword on his shoulder. "So what are we going to do for our remaining time before class?"

"That's up to you. I don't mind hanging out with you until it's time for class to start. If you want to be alone until then, that's fine with me as well."

"We can hang out together for now," he said with a slight smirk, one that I was beginning to think was something he was prone to doing. He was the one to lead me over to a shady area next to one of the buildings, sitting down on the bench after placing his weapon in front of him and patting the seat next to him. I shook my head slightly before pulling my own sword from the chain and settling it upright against the bench next to me. Conri then thought it was a good idea to climb up on the bench with us and lie down, the wolf being big enough to lie on both of our laps.

"Take it easy!" I grumbled, playfully shoving him a little so that he turned to nip my arm.

"So tell me more about yourself," Rin said quickly, trying to seem nonchalant when I could see the curiosity blazing in those blue eyes of his.

"Nothing really to tell," I told him as I scratched Conri behind the ear that was closest to me, watching as he closed his eyes in bliss. "I'm mostly categorized as a Knight Meister, but I'm also slightly a Tamer and Doctor. I'm also the one person that others can't sneak up on, no matter how hard other people try."

"Wait, seriously?"

"Yep, seriously. It's how my Demon abilities work."

"I need to see this."

"Sure." I looked down at Conri, who had a bit of a knowing look on his face. "We have a non-believer here. Show him how it works."

_"We'll see if I can scare you this time," _he said with a wolfish grin before hopping off the bench and practically disappearing into the shadows.

"Aren't you going to be aware of the fact that he's going to ambush you?" Rin asked, frowning slightly.

"Yes, but I won't know from which direction he'll appear. He's pretty great at literally melting into the shadows because of his dark pelt."

We still had ten minutes left before class when I sensed Conri coming swiftly from the right. He knew that he had to be speedy about it or else I would catch him early. I turned my head just as he came into sight next to me, quickly planting a kiss on his nose when he abruptly stopped. With a snort, he violently shook his head and I laughed, turning to smile at Rin.

He had a strange look on his face for a split second before it disappeared entirely. I chose to ignore it when I said, "See what I mean? I'm not too shabby at this."

"I think that was better than not too shabby," he said before a bell began to toll, signaling that we had five minutes to get to class. "Well, I think I should get going. If I don't leave early, I probably will make it to class late. See you later!" He stood up and threw the strap of the covering for his sword over his shoulder before walking away in his normal slouchy way.

I shook my head before heading in the opposite direction towards a building that looked rather high tech, the sheath of my sword slid back into the chain for now. Conri followed beside me as we headed inside and walked down a myriad of hallways before I made it to class. Just as I walked inside the room, all heads turned in my direction and the whole room fell silent. It was yet another reason why I hated being back. The other students would always watch me warily and avoid me like the plague, like they were a school of fish and I was the shark in their midst. I walked over to my desk and pull my sheathed sword from the chain, leaning it against the wall next to me and sitting down with Conri by my side.

_"Are we going to play the game where I talk and you tap on the table in response, two taps for yes and one for no?"_ the big wolf asked as he rested his head on my lap. _"I think you keep forgetting that you can use telepathy with me, what with you being a strong demon and all."_ When I tapped the tabletop once loudly, Conri chuckled. _"Oh, right. You insist that the teacher will somehow think that you're not listening because it looks a little like you're zoning out while speaking with me in your mind. Just try it once today please." _I tapped the table once more, making the wolf sigh. _"Fine then. You can sit in silence. I won't speak to you again until you start a conversation."_

I stuck my tongue out at him and he laughed softly before I looked up at the teacher that was walking into the room. "Alright, take your seats," he said. All the students began filing over to their seats and once again I was still alone. They all avoided my table and I shrugged, not caring about the fact that they didn't seem to want to be around me.

This class was all about higher forms of math, ones I could some days get into if I wasn't concentrating on other things. The professor was explaining something new involving calculus when I happened to look out the window. I was startled slightly when I saw someone standing on the sidewalk and looking at me. I thought perhaps he had just happened to be looking in my direction, but a solid minute passed and he kept watching me. He was kind of tall and quite muscled even though he looked lean. He had short, shaggy blonde hair and bright violet eyes, ones that blazed as they met mine from afar. A slight smirk appeared before he turned away and walked off into the crowd, disappearing entirely.

_"I just saw someone watching me,"_ I spoke in my mind, projecting my thoughts to Conri as I turned to listen to what the teacher was saying.

His ears perked up as he asked, _"Was it a Demon?"_

_"No, some guy I didn't recognize. He was staring at me before he left. Something about him just… makes me wonder if we'll keep seeing him around."_

_"We can only hope that we don't."_

The rest of my classes that morning passed swiftly and before long I was done with the last morning class in the brick building. I headed downstairs to the lobby and saw Rin already waiting for me. "Ready for lunch?" he asked with a smile before his stomach growled loudly.

"I definitely am," I said before gesturing that he should follow me.

I headed in a northerly direction for a few minutes before we finally reached a huge one story building with all of the door thrown wide open to help with the heat. I lead him inside and made Conri wait at a table so he could save us a spot while we went over to the line to get food. It was as we were waiting that I heard Rin gasp and I smirked a little at his expressions. He was reading a sign that showed the prices for food and I knew that he wasn't very happy.

"This is crazy expensive! I can't afford this food!" he exclaimed.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a black card, flashing it in front of him. "This little piece of hardware is overly full of money," I said, feeling rather amused by his attitude. "I am perfectly okay with paying for your lunch since I barely use the money for myself."

"Just know I might eat a lot," Rin said, grinning excitedly over the fact that he'd have a free meal.

I smirked a little and we walked closer to get a huge tray of food before moving to the short line to pay for it. Once there, I saw a familiar tall student with dark red hair that was in a pixie cut that was working at the register. When we walked up to her counter, her forest green eyes sparkled excitedly before she gave me a happy smile. "Kas, you're back! It's good to see you again! When do you get here?"

"Hey there, Rei," I smiled back, feeling happy to see the girl again. "I just got back yesterday. I didn't know that you were working here."

"Yeah, they hired me here a month ago!" she said excitedly. "Now that you're back again, we should totally go out on the town together! There are supposed to be some good movies playing at the theater!"

"It will have to be this weekend," I told her before bumping my shoulder lightly against Rin's. "I have to help this guy out for now."

She gave me a teasing look before she said, "Kasumi Imai, you sly dog! You've been back a day and you already have a boyfriend?"

"W-what?" I asked shakily, noticing out of the corner of my eye that Rin was beginning to blush. "Reina, get that thought out of your mind right now! He's a new student and the headmaster of the school wants me to watch out for him!"

"I'm sure that's it," she said with a devious wink. "I see the way he already looks at you."

"N-now wait a minute!" Rin protested, his voice cracking slightly. "I barely know her! There's no way I'd date her if I don't know her well!"

"I'm good at sensing these things," Reina said wickedly, "so I know that one day it really will happen."

"Alright, quit teasing him," I reprimanded her, making her giggle a little before I handed her my card. "Rin, go take the tray to the table. I'll be there in a few minutes."

He agreed and swiftly left so he could get out of the embarrassing situation. As Reina typed away on her computer to gain access to the card, I said, "There's no need to tease the newbie so much."

"I was and I wasn't," she said, now sounding serious when she handed me the card back. "You know how when I first met you, I told you that I was slightly clairvoyant?"

"I remember."

"Well, I'm getting to the point where that ability is getting stronger," she explained with an absentminded smile. "I can see clearer bits and pieces into the near future and I can see him watching you rather fondly. You and he are going to have a close future, whether you guys like it or not."

Even though I didn't want to, I said good-bye for now to my old friend before heading back to the table where an impatient Rin sat in wait. "Who was that girl?" he finally asked when I sat down, a faint blush still adorning his cheeks.

"Her name is Reina Tsukino and she is a good friend," I told him as I began to separate our food. "Out of all the humans on this campus, she is the only one who didn't shy away from me just because she could sense deep down that I was different. In fact, my uniqueness is the reason why she sat with me on my first day at this academy. She explained that she had inherited her grandmother's clairvoyance after it had skipped a generation and she could just tell that she and I would become good friends."

"If she's clairvoyant, does that mean…?"

"That she can see Demons?" I said, looking over at him and noting that he nodded. "I want to say no, but I have a feeling that she might be able to, even if it's just a little. I mean, how else could she be so comfortable with me if she didn't already know my secret?"

Rin started to concentrate on the weird food he had before him, the one with a name I couldn't remember, before remembering something important. "Oh, I meant to ask earlier. What do you have in mind for the first day of training?"

"Oh, it will just be basic things tonight," I said before taking a huge bite from a bread roll.

"Define basic things."

After chewing for a few seconds and then swallowing the bite of food, I said, "Basic things, Rin. I need to test your speed, strength, defense, and maybe even your critical thinking skills."

"Why critical thinking skills?" he asked curiously.

"I have to make sure that you're clever enough to get out of any situation presented to you," I told him with a smile.

"I think I should be able to do that," he said with a determined expression.

We finished our lunch rather quickly and I still couldn't figure out where Rin managed to put all the food he bought earlier. I was thinking about asking him if he had a tapeworm when he grabbed the tray and ran off with it so he could put it in its proper place to be cleaned. I waited patiently for him to return before I showed him the buildings for his next classes. I noticed the schedule that was sitting on the table and grabbed it before he came back, skimming over what was written until I noticed with a laugh that he only had one class after lunch. _Great, that means he's going to be coming back to the dorm in an hour and annoying me,_ I thought with a smirk. When he finally returned, I turned to give Reina a quick wave, one she enthusiastically returned, and we headed back towards the center of the academy.

"Can't I just skip this last class?" Rin grumbled just before we reached our destination.

"Now I can understand why you only have a junior high diploma," I said under my breath.

I showed him the building that he would be in for an hour and then forcibly walked him inside so that he couldn't somehow escape. I shook my head at his retreating form before beginning to head back to the old dorm, yawning a little as I walked along the path with Conri. It was when I almost made it to the dorm that I noticed a figure standing there, looking up at the old dorm with disinterest. I was getting closer to that person as I noticed the blonde hair and stature, cringing a little when Conri growled at him. The man turned his head and looked at me out of the corner of one violet eye, an air of seriousness exuding from him that set me on edge.

"You're not a student here," I said simply, staying emotionless as I stopped ten feet away from him.

"You'd be correct," he said as he turned his entire body to face me. "I guess you could say that I am a visitor."

"Why are you in True Cross Academy in the first place?" I inquired suspiciously. I felt Conri move closer to my leg so that his fur brushed against my skin.

"Strictly for business," he said as he slid his hands into the pockets of his pants.

"I seriously doubt that you have business here at this dorm," I told him, frowning slightly.

"Actually, I do. I'm here to speak with you on a matter of utmost importance."

"Oh, I doubt that very much," I said, snickering a little to myself before beginning to walk in his direction to head to the front of the dorm.

It was as I was approaching the door to the dorm and had my back to the guy when I heard him call out to me again. "Perhaps you shouldn't dismiss me so soon, Lilith!"

I instantly froze on the spot, barely even noticing when Conri began to growl deep in his throat at this stranger. _How does he know that stupid name that was given to me by Satan on the Blue Night?_ I wondered to myself as I felt anger well up from the depths of my mind. I slowly turned to face the stranger, a sudden strong wind picking up with my ever building rage, and glared fiercely at him. Not once did he flinch, even when dark storm clouds seemed to roll in over the town from out of nowhere.

"How the hell do you know that name?" I growled, seeing out the corner of my eye that Conri was beginning to look worried with me.

"Perhaps I should introduce myself first," the stranger said over the now gusting wind. "My name is Michael. You're most likely going to be seeing me often."

"Your name is Michael? You _definitely _aren't from around here, are you?"

"Well, I'm from Assiah and that is all that matters. Now, to the important part of the discussion," he told me before his violet eyes seemed to blaze. "I work for the great Heavenly Light, which is the higher being that reigns over all angels, gods, and goddesses in Assiah. The Heavenly Light has instructed me to keep a close eye on you from now on since I hold the title of Archangel. Now that you are associated with the Son of Satan, you are a threat to the well-being of Assiah. We cannot allow for Gehenna to take over this world."

Red had begun to tinge the edges of my vision with his overly long explanation and before long an evil smirk was playing along my lips. "I'm a threat, am I?" I asked, my voice barely loud enough to be heard over the wind. "You haven't seen anything yet." I used a small fraction of my power to boost my speed, rushing at Michael almost faster than he could react. He quickly sidestepped out of the way, a move that I had expected, and I whipped around to tightly grab him by the throat. "Obviously, you underestimated me more than you realized."

_"Kasumi, stop this!"_ Conri roared, running over to us to grab the back of my jacket with his teeth.

"Listen to your familiar, Demon," Michael gritted out, annoyance clearly making an appearance after being expressionless for so long. "Attacking an agent of the Heavenly Light is one thing, but injuring one means corporal punishment. Think long and hard about if you want to do anything more than you already have."

Even though I didn't like it, I could sense that everything he had said thus far was true. It was unbelievably infuriating, but I finally managed to calm myself just enough to let him go. The storm that had begun to brew dissipated slightly, rain lightly falling as the black clouds lightened to a soft gray. "Just get out of here now before I change my mind about not killing you," I growled before walking back to the doors of the dorm with Conri.

"This won't be the last that you'll see of me," Michael said before the sound of wingbeats could be heard. I turned my head slightly to see that he was now gone, not a trace of him left on the ground and not even in the sky itself.

I threw open the door, Conri bolting inside before I swiftly turned around and slammed my fist as hard as I could into the door. _"Stop it, Kasumi! There's no need for that!"_ the large wolf reprimanded. _"That man is now gone, so you need to calm down. You've done enough to alert the other humans to your rage."_

"They won't think anything about a little storm," I grumbled as I looked down at my fist, noting that my knuckles were bleeding. I watched as the skin slowly healed itself and it was like nothing had ever happened. "They'll just write it off in their minds and then move on with their lives. Nothing to worry about."

_"How are you going to train another Demon to keep his powers hidden when you can't seem to do it yourself?"_

"I could have controlled it, but that 'angel' needed to learn that I was serious," I told Conri before walking towards the stairs that would lead up to my room. "It won't happen again, at least not like that."

_"That's good to hear,"_ Conri said softly, his tone changing from stern to comforting. _"We don't want any more trouble than we already have."_

I nodded in agreement before we silently made our way back to our room. I sat at my desk, pulling out the homework I would have to do for the night, and heard Conri hop up on the bed so he could get a nap. I was finished with homework by the time I heard the front door open, meaning that Rin had finally finished his last class of the day and was back in the dorm. I could hear him running around as he made it up to my floor and then the noises stopped just outside my door before a soft knock echoed in my room.

"It's unlocked," I called to him, leaning back in my chair as I stared up at the ceiling.

"Hey, Kas!" he said excitedly as he walked into the room. "Are you ready for—" His words were cut off before he could say anything else, so I could only guess that he caught sight of me and the odd mood I was in. "Kas, is everything alright?"

"Never better," I said as I slowly forced myself to stand up from the chair. "Now, what were you going to ask me before you changed your mind?"

"Oh, right. I was going to ask if you were ready to start my training."

"I think I told you it would be after dinner," I said, barely noticing that the rain outside was falling even harder than before.

I began to walk past him, signaling for Conri to stay where he was when it looked ike he might follow me, and headed to the door. It was as I was turning the door handle that Rin asked, "Does this strange mood of yours have anything to do with the blood stained dent in the door?"

"Maybe. Now go do your homework before you have to go to Cram School. It's better if you don't fall behind right from the start." I walked out into the hallway as Rin groaned in exasperation, then quickly stuck his head out into the hallway so he could still talk to me.

"Are you going to tell me what happened later?" he called to me.

"Probably not!" I yelled back.

"What happens if I keep bugging you about it?"

"I'll probably be forced to kill you!"

I heard him snort derisively before he went back into my room, making me wonder what the hell he thought he was going to do in there while I was gone. I headed further into the dorm in search of the old library, just to see if it was still as fully stocked as the day I left so many months ago. To my surprise, it looked untouched and slightly dusty, so I grabbed a cleaning rag and duster before getting to work. I knew I had a few hours left before Rin had to go to Cram School and I intended on going there as well, just to sit in and see what the trainees had to learn nowadays. They had a tendency to change the curriculum slightly whenever Exorcists seemed to be dying faster than the Paladin liked.

I was about halfway through cleaning the library and was about to open a window to find a quicker way of doing things when I happened to see something odd off in the distance. There was a huge field that led out to a dark forest behind the dorm, one I went into periodically when I was bored. I thought I could see the form of Mephisto, along with a smaller individual following behind him, out along the edge of the trees. He seemed to be talking to the figure about something and I was about to adjust my sight to see even further by focusing my energy to my eyes when they both disappeared into the forest.

"I wonder what that tricky Demon thinks he's up to," I said to myself, staring out the window for a couple seconds more before going back to my task at hand. "Oh, well. It's honestly none of my concern right this second. I can go investigate later."

I quickly opened the window and then snapped my fingers, the wind outside obeying my command and easily sweeping the dust out of the room without harming the books that I cared about. It was good to know that there was at least one thing in my life that I could still control. I decided to leave the opened window as it was so I could air out the room some and then grabbed a book from one of the shelves. I always seemed to read whatever I could get my hands on because it took me to a world where I didn't have to worry about Assiah and Gehenna causing me trouble. The only issue I had was that time seemed to fly by because Rin found me once more and alerted me to the fact that it was time for him to go to Cram School. I hurriedly put the book back on its proper shelf before I ran out of the library, placed the proper gold key into the lock, then twisted it and opened the door for us to pass into the Cram School with ease.


	3. Exorcist Training

**Hello, dear readers! I'm back with the latest chapter! I will try to update at least once a week if I can, but final exams are soon approaching and I will have to fit in studying at some point. Oh well! Now, to the chapter! Last time, I introduce the two new OCs. There most likely won't be any more of them, at least not in this chapter. Anyway, I'll try to keep this one short. Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 3: Exorcist Training**

I double blinked at the lighting change in the hallways of the Cram School, noting the oddly colored walls and light fixtures along them. It didn't surprise me one bit that it all looked the same as when I was training to become a Knight Meister. I tilted my head to the side slightly as I listened to the sounds of talking from a room a few doors down. As we walked closer, I could discern the diverse tones of voice, which led me to soon pick out Yukio as one of the people speaking. As I was about to grab the door handle, Rin quickly grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me back a few feet.

"Wait a minute," he hissed, letting him keep a hold of me even though I could easily pull my wrist free if I so chose. "Are you even allowed to be in there during class or do you need to change shapes like Mephisto? He was a tiny dog during the last class."

"If I really wanted to, I could do that. However, I don't feel like it, and so I will not. Nice try though."

"You won't need to anyway," a voice said and we both turned to see that it was the tiny white dog that Rin had spoken of. It gave a tiny smirk before yipping, "They're already expecting you sometime this week anyway! I've made you one of the teachers that will help Yukio with training the Pages!"

I was standing in front of him and holding him by the scruff of his neck before he could move away, yelping a little in surprise and kicking his tiny legs in an attempt to get free. "I'm pretty sure we've had a discussion before about just throwing things upon me so suddenly," I said softly, feeling a breeze suddenly pick up around us that ruffled his fur for a few seconds before dying down again. "Do you remember what I did the last time?"

Mephisto gulped a little and I heard Rin clear his throat to catch my attention. I looked over at him, raising an eyebrow and prompting him to ask the question that was obviously on his mind. "What exactly did you do?"

Conri groaned in exasperation before I explained what happened with Mephisto to Rin. "While he was in this form, I put him in a tiny dog crate and then strung the crate up from the side of the cliff so that it dangled a couple feet above shark infested waters. He was there for a week before someone claimed it was 'animal abuse' and freed him."

There was a second of silence before Rin laughed hysterically, clutching his sides and hunching over. Even though I was still angry at Mephisto, I felt a small smile playing along my lips before I looked back at the dog. He was glaring at me for the incident in the past before growling, "It wasn't funny then and it definitely isn't now! Stop your laughing at my expense or I will take back my agreement to let you live, Rin Okumura!"

I shook Mephisto just enough to make him dizzy before I replied with, "Hey, be nice to him. He's got nothing to do with this. You're just a little touchy on the subject still or you'd see the humor behind it. Now, back to the topic at hand, what do you seem to think I'll be doing?"

"Just helping Yukio," Mephisto sighed. "I'd prefer it if you'd teach the Tamer section or even the one for Knights. I'll take what I can get at this point. Do what you want, even if it's just being Yukio's assistant."

"Good enough." I dropped Mephisto and he scurried off down the hallway to completely disappear from sight. I turned to Rin before asking, "Ready to go to class?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," he told me with a nonchalant shrug.

We walked over to the door with Conri at my heels and quickly opened it, having a moment where all three of us tried to shove our way through and managing to wedge ourselves in the doorframe. I solved the problem by promptly kicking Rin's legs out from under him and walking inside with Conri after the half Demon fell. I could immediately hear him cursing under his breath before he headed over to a table at the front and I hopped up to sit on the teacher's desk in front of where Yukio was standing.

"What are you doing here?" he asked quietly, his words coming out in a rush.

"Well, I could have found many other things to do with my time, but apparently Mephisto had this elaborate plan for me to help you as you teach," I told him as I lightly kicked my feet against the front of the desk. "Who knows where he got that crazy idea from. Anyway, I'll basically be here to help fetch things or maybe beat up an errant student or two."

"So basically just Rin," Yukio said with a tiny laugh when I shrugged. Yukio called for attention and the students soon fell silent so that he could speak to them. "Class, this is Kasumi Imai, 2nd Upper Class Knight Meister. She's here just to help me and maybe to do some teaching herself."

"If I'm feeling nice that day, of course," I piped up, hearing Conri laugh softly as he lay down in front of me.

It was then that Yukio carried on with teaching, discussing the different classes of Demons that could be found. I tuned out what he was saying, instead sneakily watching Rin as he slowly drifted off to sleep. I had to stifle my laughter at the sight and I waited until he was completely unconscious before I signaled for Yukio to stop talking. Instantly, the rest of the class looked on curiously as I grabbed a huge leather bound book on the desk and walked over to Rin without making a sound. Standing up on the chair next to him, I lifted the book as I high as I could before dropping it onto the tabletop. There was an explosive sound that caused Rin to yelp, leaning back to fast in his chair and flailing his arms before he fell backwards onto the floor. He groaned in pain and rolled over onto his side, glaring fiercely at me as I laughed with the rest of the class.

"Maybe you should try to stay awake from now on," I said once I could breathe normally again. "Who knows, you might actually learn something."

He grumbled something nasty under his breath before getting up from the floor and setting his chair back in place before he sat down. The rest of the class was spent by allowing a few students to receive their Temptaint so that they could finally see Demons. Yukio decided to cut the class period short so that those students could recover and we all headed back to our respective dorms. All it took for the four of us to go back to the old dorm was a simple turn of a key in a lock and we were back, ready for dinner and the training session I had planned.

"Are you going to tell me more about the training?" Rin asked as we headed to the kitchen.

"Seriously, can't you wait?" I grumbled under my breath. "We can go about training once dinner is done. Quit whining."

"Don't tell me what to do!"

"I will if I want!"

_"Stop it!"_ Conri growled, glaring at the both of us until we fell silent. _"The way you two keep going, I'll have a headache in ten minutes!"_

Rin looked at me incredulously before whispering, "Can familiars get headaches?"

"Not that I know of," I told him with a shrug. "Anyway, I would like food, so let's keep moving."

It didn't take long before we made it to the kitchen where we discovered that the meal had already been set out on the table. The first instant that Rin saw all the food, he flipped out and ran into the kitchen area while Yukio, Conri, and I sat down in the table just outside. Rin's yells could be heard from where we were sitting as we began to help ourselves to the food. "I just don't understand how this guy does this! Where is he?! I just want to ask him a few questions!"

"Just drop it, Rin!" I yelled to him. "You'll see him when he decides it's time! Now come here and get some food before we eat it all!"

He didn't seem very happy about it, but he did as he was told and finally came out into the dining area with the rest of us. He quickly piled a plateful of food before digging in, concentrating on that while I discussed Yukio's lesson plan. He was going to slowly show the Pages different minor Demons so that they could dip their toes into the world of Gehenna. It seemed like a good idea to me, especially since it would be the perfect pace that wouldn't overwhelm them. Not only that, but I could keep the Demons in check without any of the students noticing.

Dinner was soon over and it was time to begin Rin's training, so I grabbed him by the collar, pulled him off the bench in front of the table, and began to drag him down the hall as he yelled in protest. To irritate Rin even more, I could hear Conri snapping at his heels and the curses practically rolled from Rin's mouth in retaliation. I pulled him down the stairs and outside before throwing him into the courtyard with a laugh. I was about to walk over to him when I had the sense that something was watching me. I sniffed the air for a couple seconds to catch an unfamiliar scent before I sharply turned my head in the direction of the east near the bridge that led over a creek. There, I could see a person standing beneath the bridge and peeking around the corner to get a better look at us. I caught a few details, the silvery hair and the fact that this person was male, before they flinched a little, taken aback that I caught him observing us so easily. He jumped back under the bridge and seemed to disappear when I could no longer sense his presence.

"Hey, what's going on, Kas?" I heard Rin ask before I turned to look at him once more, noticing his concerned glance. "You were rather happy a few seconds ago and then you turned serious."

"I thought I saw…" I started to say before I shook my head and undoing the chain that kept my sword strapped to my back. Rin did the same and placed his blade near mine once I propped it up against the wall near the door. "Never mind. It's honestly not important right now. Let's get back to what we're out here for." I pointed at a large tree near the dorm, one that seemed to stretch all the way up past the roof. "See this tree? I'm giving you until the time I return to climb all the way up to the top. It should only take me five minutes. Conri, you have permission to chase him up the tree the moment I leave."

_"This is going to be fun,"_ the large wolf familiar said, giving a roguish grin over to Rin, who was beginning to look nervous.

I could hear them bickering back and forth as I quickly ran inside, heading up to my room so that I could change into the clothes I used for workouts. As I was running up the stairs and happened to look out of a window on my floor, I could see Conri as he ran after Rin, forcing the half Demon to leap up into the branches to avoid being bitten. Conri stood on his hind legs and placed his front paws on the bark to make himself taller, managing to grab Rin's pant leg and nearly pulling him off the branch. He yanked himself free and began to climb up the tree the best he could before I ran past the window. The moment I made it inside my room, I changed from my uniform into tiny black shorts and a tank top of the same color that showed a strip of skin around my waist.

When I finally made it back outside, Conri loped over to me and said, _"He needed a little extra motivation, but he actually made it to the top of the tree. Have a look for yourself."_

He was definitely right about that. I tilted my head back and saw the half Demon waving down at me with a self-satisfied grin on his face, one I had to get rid of quickly or he'd get too arrogant. "Now you have to climb back down!" I yelled up to him, chuckling a little when I faintly heard him groan in exasperation.

"I think you're trying to kill me!" he shouted as he began the climb down.

"Guess you'll never know that for sure!"

I could hear him saying some nasty things about me under his breath and all I could do was try to stifle my laughter. "I can hear you trying not to laugh down there! I don't find this funny!"

"If you were in my position, you would find it as amusing as I do!" I told him. After unwrapping my tail from around my hips, I jumped up to the first lowest branch and made my way up to him with ease. He watched me in disbelief as I crouched down on a branch nearby and wrapped my long tail around the branch itself to keep my balance. He then seemed to focus his attention solely on my tail for a bit so I decided to catch his attention. "Hey, eyes up here. Quit looking at my tail or I'll slash you with it."

"It looks like a dragon's tail," Rin said as he began to climb down the tree again. "It also looks extremely sharp."

"Of course," I said with a smirk before I unwrapped my tail again and jumped down to the next branch. "The end of my tail is so sharp that if I wanted to, I could slice a person's arm and they wouldn't even know I did it until they felt the blood flow."

"Wait, you can use your tail as a weapon?" he asked excitedly, beaming up at me instead of jumping down from the last branch.

"It's frowned upon. A Demon has two weaknesses and the tail is one of them. If someone grabs it, it halves the Demon's power, so you should only allow someone you trust to go anywhere near it."

"Does that mean you trust me?" His question was so quiet that I almost couldn't hear it but his words held a hint of surprise.

"No, it just means I don't think you're fast enough to get that close to me," I said seriously before I hopped down to the ground, waiting for him to do the same and land beside me. "Speaking of speed, it's time to see how fast you can run."

I crouched down to tie the laces on my running shoes when I heard Rin make a noise of surprise. "What are these from?" I heard him ask before I felt two fingers brush down my back in two spots that instantly made me flinch. Conri growled low in his throat as I whipped around and grabbed Rin by the wrist, glaring up at him angrily.

"For your information, they're scars," I told him, my voice sounding calm even though I was mad. "I've had them for as long as I can remember, yet I have no recollection of how I got them. When I go into my true Demon form, wings form over the scars. Either way, I don't like people touching them because it just feels… weird."

"Weird how?"

"Just imagined pain is all," I said after shaking my head. "Now, back to the next test. We're going to run to the other end of the courtyard. You don't have to beat me in the race."

"Oh good," Rin said with a relieved sigh.

"However, the one you _do_ have to beat is Conri because he will be chasing after us," I said with an amused smile.

I stood up and that was the moment that Conri barked at Rin, who immediately took off running towards the end of the courtyard. I laughed and started running as well, easily catching up with him and running past. I could move even faster if I wanted to, but I didn't want Rin to get discouraged too quick. There was the sound of a yelp and I looked back to see Rin running even faster with Conri on his heels before I hopped up on a ledge at the end of the courtyard to watch what would happen next. Conri began to run low to the ground until he could nip at Rin's ankles. Next thing I knew, the half Demon jumped and threw himself up to the ledge I was sitting, grabbing the edge and scrambling up to collapse next to me.

"How was… that helpful…?" Rin huffed.

_"It proves that you're quite swift on your feet,"_ Conri said before standing on his hind legs and resting his chin on the top of the ledge to look at us both. _"Not as fast as Kas, but you've got speed. If you didn't, I would have thrown you to the ground with ease."_

"Yep, you are _definitely_ trying to kill me," Rin said with a sigh before throwing an arm over his eyes.

"You haven't seen anything yet," I told him, feeling amused by his behavior. "I'll let you have a break and then we can get to the last test."

"What's the last test?"

"I just want to see your skill with a sword and how well you can handle your Demonic powers."

He seemed agreeable, although his words were of the muffled variety. I allowed him ten minutes before we went back towards the dorm to grab our swords. Rin made it to the swords first, pulling the cloth from the sheath and setting it nicely on the ground as I moved towards my blade. Instead of strapping the chain around my body, I just pulled the sword from the sheath and held it on the palms of my hands to examine it.

This blade was like an extension of my soul, a personal weapon of sorts that all Demons possessed but in different forms. Mine was simply named Oblivion, one that seemed to fit in more ways than one. Oblivion was a pitch black long sword with trims of gray that was evenly balanced and quite powerful when wielded correctly. It had a black handle connected to a hand guard that dropped down on the right side and attached to the elongated area of the hand-guard was part of the dark blade the aided the user in retaining balance. The entire blade was the color of obsidian and sharp, light gray around the edges of it to offset the black. There was a tiny symbol of sorts near the tip of the blade, one I could never figure out and decided to leave as a mystery.

I looked up and saw Rin gazing at my blade, making me smile a little. "All Demons have a weapon of choice," I told him before holding the sword in my right hand. "It's almost like a part of them. This one is mine and it's called Oblivion. Now, let's get to it."

"Wait a second, I have a quick question," Rin said before holding the handle in one hand and the sheath in the other. "My father mentioned something about how the stronger Demons all have a certain element or affinity. Mine are the blue flames that I got from Satan. What's yours then? I don't think I've ever seen it."

"Well, in its basic form, I have control of air, but I can do much more than that. When my emotions get a bit out of hand, a breeze will usually form around me. However, when I am to the point where I am extremely angry, a storm of varying intensity will appear."

"That means… that storm earlier that seemed to come out of nowhere was caused by you!"

"That's right," I said, allowing the air around me to shiver like when hot air rises from the pavement on a sweltering summer's day. I adjusted my stance and put one foot in front of the other, left arm outstretched to point my palm at his chest and my sword arm pulled back to direct the tip of my blade towards him. "Now draw your weapon. No more waiting around and stalling."

He seemed nervous for a split second before pushing it down slowly pulling the sword from its sheath. There was a roar of fire before his blue flames appeared all over his body, even covering the tail that he unwound from around his torso. _That tail of his definitely can't be used as a weapon,_ I thought to myself with an inward chuckle before he finally charged at me. His first swing at me was sloppy, leaving himself wide open so that I could end the fight in one move if I truly wanted to. Instead, I blocked his attack without having to move from my position and pushed him backwards with my blade.

"That better not be the best you can do," I stated seriously, keeping my expressions blank.

"I've never really used a sword before, alright?" he growled before lunging at me. Again, I could see holes in his defense and could block a second time without moving much. "I feel like you are toying with me!"

"Trust me, I'm not even trying to do that," I replied before finally moving faster than he could see and pressing my blade to his neck while he was surprised. "Your sword skills need work for sure if you are new at this sort of thing. A Demon won't care about that and will drag you straight to Gehenna once it contacts Satan." I watched as he went pale at the thought and I knew he was paying closer attention. "Don't worry, Rin. You're doing better than most beginners. I used to know someone who would drop their blade somehow whenever I blocked their attack."

He seemed a little more confident at that and any hints of discouragement were replaced with hope. "Just help me the best you can, Kas. I don't need it to be perfect, I just need enough skill so that I can protect myself and those I care about. I need to get stronger for that reason."

"And it's an honorable reason at that. It won't be pretty, but I can give you the crash course in sword fighting. Once you have the hang of that, we can move on to smoothing things out and teaching you a few elaborate tricks you could use." I moved my blade away from his throat and dropped it to my side. "Now, about your control over your flames… how well do you handle it?"

"Not well at all," he replied with a cringe. "Honestly, it just does what it wants, when it wants. I've only had it for a little over a week."

"We'll have to work on that as well," I told him before I used the light breeze to form a thin throwing knife on the palm of my left hand. Rin seemed to notice how the air shifted more than normal just before I threw it towards a large weed ten feet away. The air blade severed it cleanly and immediately dissipated before it even hit the ground. "Once you get the knack of using it, you can create as many things as you can imagine. Hell, you can even adapt it to any situation. All I could do in the beginning was create a breeze and move things around. It takes a lot of practice, but you'll slowly be able to do more and more with your power, kind of like how I can now create storms if I wanted."

He looked pained before saying, "I don't think I can do something that requires finesse right now."

"Just give it a try."

He seemed nervous to do this one task, but not unwilling to attempt it. Rin took a steadying breath before closing his eyes and concentrating on what he was supposed to do. Just as sudden as before when he unsheathed his sword, all the large weeds in the yard erupted into blue flames that stretched up several feet into the air. For a first try, I was impressed that he could do so much with it, even though it was wild and out of control. I snapped my fingers and a large gust of wind put the blue fire out, blowing ashes across the yard from what was left of the large weeds.

"Well, I think that's all for tonight, don't you?" I gave him a shrug before walking over to where I had set the sheath for my sword. "All I needed was to assess your skills and I think I've got a proper read on them. We can start working on your flames for the first half, and then concentrate on sword skills."

"Hold on, Kas," I heard Rin say before I heard the sound of his sword going back into its sheath and he quickly grabbed my wrist. His hand felt very warm, so his temperature either burned hotter than a normal human or it was an aftereffect of the flames he used. I turned a little to look up at him and caught his expressions, which still seemed to hold some anxiety. "Do you really think that I can learn all of this? I'm not the best when it comes to being taught things."

"As long as you are willing to learn, I can teach you just about anything you want to know," I said with a comforting smile, patting his hand lightly before he finally let go. I put the sword back in its proper place and picked up both the scabbard and the chain, walking inside the dorm with Conri and leaving Rin to think about the situation.

* * *

It was the middle of the night when I heard an odd noise, one that woke both Conri and me. We both yawned heavily and I ran my fingers through my still damp hair from when I took a bath, pulling some of the knots free and then stretching a little before I heard the noise a second time. It was not one that was normal in the dorm and I soon got up from the bed to head to the door. I soon identified it to be a squeak out in one of the hallways and I was going to find it.

_"What is that squeak?"_ Conri asked after a second yawn. _"Almost sounds like a mouse."_

"No, it's not a mouse," I said as I grabbed the door handle. "It's something bigger, maybe a squirrel or a rat."

_"Since I know that you're going to go hunt it down, do you need me to come with you or can I go back to sleep?"_

"Go back to sleep, you lazy wolf," I chuckled before opening the door soundlessly and slipping out into the hallway.

I could hear the squeaking further into dorm towards Rin's and Yukio's wing of the building and I stealthily moved down the stairs to their floor. The squeaks were getting louder the closer I got and I was completely focused on finding it that I almost jumped when I saw a door open, light spilling out into the hallway and making me back away into the shadows the best I could. I saw Rin come out of the room, mentally noting that this must be where the twins resided, before he looked in my direction. My eyes must have been reflecting the light from his room and he looked like he was about to yell when I quickly ran to him, clapping a hand over his mouth so he wouldn't cause my prey to run off.

I leaned in close to his ear once he realized who it was and whispered, "There's something making a noise in the dorm and I'm trying to track it. You can either help or go back in your room to stay out of my way. It's your choice."

He made a muffled sound against my palm and a sharp nod to signal that he did in fact want to help me. I guessed that he had heard the noise as well and was going to investigate when I startled him. I waved to Yukio, who seemed half asleep at his desk, and Rin and I both slowly made our way down the hall. The squeaking was getting louder and more frequent, leading me to believe that it was in an old office. I motioned in the direction we were heading and he nodded again as I slowly made my way to the door. I grabbed the handle and slowly pulled it down to peek inside before moving into the room with Rin. He shut the door behind him louder than I wanted, looking sheepish when I glared at him for it. It was just as we began to move further into the room that we saw something run past us like a streak of dark fur and Rin yelped in surprise, literally grabbing me and using me as a shield.

"Damn you, Rin!" I shouted, turning slightly to glare at him. "Are you seriously using me to protect you from one rodent?"

"… N-No, of course not."

He seemed only slightly ashamed of what he had done, but I wasn't paying attention since I finally noticed that his hands were on my waist. I could then conclude for sure that his temperature was warmer than a regular human's and, with a slight blush adorning my cheeks, I pulled his hands from my body and went back to the search. Rin followed behind me so close that I could practically feel his breath on the back of my neck just before I found my prey. I crouched down for a few minutes to wait for it to move again, then pounced upon it as it squealed in fear. I picked it up and saw that it was just a squirrel before I brandished it at Rin, who yelped again and hopped away from me.

"No need to be scared of a squirrel, Rin," I teased as I petted the poor creature in my arms, which had calmed down after a few seconds of struggle. "Although I do wonder how it managed to get in. As far as I can tell, this whole place is sealed and I know that I closed the window the other night." I walked over to the window of the office that beheld the large tree in the courtyard and opened it, setting the squirrel on a nearby branch so it could be free. As I shut the window again, I said, "Well, I suppose it will have to remain a mystery for now. We need to get some sleep. Good night, Rin."

I walked over to him and stood on my toes so I could brush my lips against his cheek, just to get him to blush. I wasn't disappointed when I pulled away, laughing lightly when I saw that he was now beet red. With my tail swaying back and forth in a leisurely manner like that of a cat, I left the room and headed back to my own to catch a few more hours of sleep with Conri.


	4. Typhoon

**Hello, time for another chapter! I've had a bit of writer's block and some studying to do with finals coming up, but I managed to get another chapter out for all of you. I'm going to keep this short because I've got some homework left to do, but I hope that you enjoy it!**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Typhoon**

It had only been a few days since I noticed I had two people watching me and neither one of them had made another appearance. It was the angel I was most worried about, especially since the other one almost seemed harmless right now. I just wanted to concentrate on my studies and the fact that I had to train someone as well. Not that I didn't like training Rin, but I just wasn't used to it. I preferred to go out on missions on my own for months at a time where I knew I could do the most good.

What I was looking forward to later was hanging out that weekend with Reina. She found me the day before and told me that we would be going to the movies the next day, whether I went willingly or she was forced to kidnap me. She was definitely an interesting person and I had missed her eccentricity while I was gone on my last mission. It didn't matter the situation, she would always try to make my day brighter by any means. I guess that was why she was such a good friend of mine.

It was drawing closer to nightfall and I was standing near the doorway with Conri when I saw Rin appear at the top of the stairs. "What the hell are you doing?" he asked, trying to sound nonchalant when I could actually see that he was quite curious.

"Reina is coming over to drag me to the 'movies,'" I told him, using air quotes around the last word.

_"I don't understand,"_ Conri said in confusion. _"Why do you seem to suspicious of her motives?"_

"Seems kind of rude to doubt your friend," the half Demon at the top of the stairs grumbled under his breath.

I patted the poor wolf familiar on the head before deciding to explain for the both of them. "Conri doesn't have a clue what really happens when Hurricane Reina shows up at our doorstep since he has to stay in the dorm. Animals aren't allowed at the movies or the place we'll end up going tonight. When Reina says she's dragging me out somewhere, she will tell a lie about where we will be going for those who are eavesdropping and then the look in her eyes tells a different story."

"What _really_ happens when you girls go out?" the voice of Yukio said and I looked to see him peeking around the corner at the top of the stairs to see what the commotion was all about.

It was then that there was a loud knock at the front door and I was relieved that I wouldn't be interrogated any longer. "You two need to make yourself scarce while Reina is around. She doesn't know that I live in this building with two guys and I intend on keeping it that way. So go to your room and act like normal humans."

"She referring to you on that last part," Yukio said with a smirk before the two of them ran off to hide.

I looked down at Conri, who was changing his mannerisms to that of a large dog, and said, "I know you think you have to act like a dog, but please don't jump on her. Be on your best behavior."

He gave a bark before hopping around excitedly as there was another knock at the door. Without further ado, I opened the door and Hurricane Reina swept into the room with a bunch of loud, ecstatic screeches. She practically threw herself at me and we crashed to the floor together, the huge bag she had carried in rolling a few feet away. Reina hugged me tightly, which I awkwardly patted her back in an attempt to make her stop accidentally choking me, and then got up so she could pull me back to my feet.

"It's so nice that we get to hang out again, Kas!" she said, bouncing on her toes in her excitement before turning to Conri. "It's even nice to be able to see you, Conri!"

It was as she walked over to the large wolf and scratched him under the chin that I could feel two pairs of eyes watching us from around the corner at the very top of the stairs. I already knew it was the twins and it wasn't long before I could hear their whispers. "What do you think they'll be up to?" Rin asked suspiciously.

"I don't have a clue," Yukio replied in hushed tones. "I don't really understand girls."

"Yeah, I noticed," the older twin said flatly. "I think we should follow them once they leave."

It was as Yukio was scolding Rin for such a thought that Reina shifted to grab the bag that had fallen and softly said, "You do realize that there are two guys watching us up there, right?"

"I do realize that," I sighed, shaking my head in exasperation. "They're friends and completely harmless. I told them to stay out of sight and act normal for once, but so much for that approach. Let's just head up to my room and change."

Reina gave me a brilliant smile. "What, no asking me if we're really going to the movie theater this time?"

"I know for a fact that you're going to drag me to the newest club before we do anything else, Rei," I laughed before leading the way to the steps with Conri, Rin and Yukio diving out of sight. "What's the new one you want to go to this time?"

"It's called Club Echo," she said guiltily, adjusting the straps of the bag on her shoulder. "It's supposed to have the best music for dancing. You know how all these rich kids are, you being one yourself."

"Stop your teasing," I told her as I lightly bumped her shoulder with my own once before we made it to my room. "You know my job just makes good money, which is how I've managed to accrue so much of it."

She made some noncommittal answer of agreement before she walked into the room with Conri. I turned to face the way we had just come from to see Rin and Yukio sneaking over, freezing when I caught them in the act. Yukio looked apologetic, standing further back than Rin, while his older twin was completely unashamed. In an act of immaturity, I stuck my tongue out at the both of them before walking into my room and shutting the door behind me with a bang.

"So who were those two?" Reina asked as she set her large bag on my bed and unzipped it.

"One you've already met. That was Rin Okumura and his twin brother, Yukio. I may have mentioned that you saying that we were going to the movies is code for something else and piqued their interest."

"Oh, Rin," she chuckled to herself. "The one I tormented the other day. Well, what I find most interesting is that they're hanging around this dorm like they own the place. Care to explain that also?"

I sighed, cursing my friend's intuitive nature since it always forced me to reveal things. "Due to certain dire circumstances that I cannot disclose, those two live in the other wing of this dorm. The only time I see them is at evening meals."

She was grinning deviously at my words, which only made me cringe at what she said next. "I guess that means that Rin will have more opportunities to be around you."

"Rei, I told you—"

"Yeah, yeah, I remember what you said. Now, it's time to get changed!"

She pulled out one dress, which took me a few seconds to realize that she was once again up to her old tricks. This dress was all sparkles, sequins, and transparent material. "Put it back," I said in exasperation.

Reina looked at me with those forest green eyes in mock surprise. "Aww, but why, Kas? There's nothing wrong with it!"

"You're doing the same thing you always do. You bring some of the skimpiest dresses along until I get impatient and you get away with wearing the one you want that you'd know I would protest in the beginning."

"You catch on quick! Go get your dress! I've got long jackets we can use for when we aren't at the club."

She grabbed two pieces of clothing before she ran into the bathroom, making me laugh inwardly before I headed to my closet. "Can we actually go to the movies after or is it going to be a party night?" I loudly asked before grabbing one of my favorite dresses.

"Yes, Kas, we can go to the movies! We won't be at the club for long and we can go see this scary movie I've heard about directly after! But only if you hurry!"

I was heading back towards my bed to change into the dress when Conri, who was standing in front of the door, softly growled, _"Rin and Yukio are standing outside the door. They pretty much have their ears against it and are attempting to listen in on everything that is being said."_

I rolled my eyes in annoyance before focusing on changing. The dress I chose was blood red and ended at mid-thigh, strapless and form fitting. There were slits that went down the sides that showed off some skin and stopped at the bottom of my ribs, held together by three strips of black fabric along each side. I checked in the mirror to make sure that my tail didn't show while it was wrapped around my waist, sighing in relief when it was somehow concealed. I found a strap like a garter to keep my cellphone on me at all times and attached it to the case before pulling it on all the way to my upper thigh. It was as I putting on my shoes that Reina stepped out of the bathroom. She had on tiny, black shorts and a white long sleeved shirt that was low cut. Her shoulders were left bare since the material was missing in those areas but there was a piece that looped around her neck once almost like a halter top. She then glared at my choice of shoes, crossing her arms and tapping her fancy looking boot on the floor.

"Are you seriously going to wear Converse to a club?" she asked incredulously.

I grinned at her. "You're going to think I'm a genius when your feet hurt like hell because of those crazy boots you're wearing."

_"I'll watch Oblivion while you're gone,"_ Conri told me before walking over to the bed and settling down next to the blade. _"Beware of the twins. I have a feeling that they are going to be following you."_

I signaled for Reina to stay quiet as we approached the door, then yanked it open to startle both Rin and Yukio enough that they fell backwards onto the floor. Rin seemed to focus only on me until I glared at him, making him wince slightly before he scooted back a little. Reina assessed the two of them before she finally looked at me and I groaned. It was a look that I knew well, which was not something that I wanted to deal with.

"I know what you're probably going to say and the answer is no."

"Aww, come on, Kas! It will be a great opportunity to get to know you're new friends!"

"Who says they're friends?!"

As we argued back and forth between the two of us, I heard Rin whisper to Yukio. "Do you understand what they're talking about?"

"Not a clue," Yukio replied, "but I have this feeling that we should probably run while we have the chance."

Reina glared at them, making them freeze to the spot before they could get away. "Oh, no you don't. You two are coming with us." With that, she pulled Yukio to his feet and dragged him down the hallway, ignoring any protests that he threw at her. Rin seemed a little nervous now that his brother was gone, but shrugged and grinned at me even though I could still see that he was a bit anxious.

With a mock elaborate wave of his in the direction that Reina and Yukio headed, he said, "After you, milady."

"Why, thank you, kind sir," I replied with a short curtsy, smiling back and walking with him down the hallway. I looped my arm through his and let him escort me along until we made it to the main room where the other two were waiting. Reina let out a few catcalls, making both Rin and I blush a little, but then we finally headed out to our first destination.

* * *

That night was definitely an interesting one. After we took the subway all the way to the middle of Campus Town, we finally made it to the odd looking Club Echo. The walls outside were all black and edged with changing neon lights. Whenever the door would open to allow someone entrance, bright flashy lights would illuminate the street before leaving it in darkness when the door shut again. The closer we walked to the club, the more Yukio tried to escape, which Reina wouldn't allow.

We spent an hour there, most of which I didn't even dance. I stayed beside Rin and we sneakily laughed at Yukio as Reina attempted to teach him how to dance. He looked so embarrassed and anxious about the whole thing, but Reina remained patient and didn't once tease him like she would have done to anyone else. Yukio might have been oblivious to our laughter, but Reina definitely was not and kept shooting frowns at us. After a while, Rin and I were bored the moment Yukio seemed to figure it out and the half Demon leaned down to place his lips near my ear so he could be heard.

"Do you know how to dance?" he asked over the music, which was a type of dubstep.

I turned around, standing up on my toes and placing my lips close to his ear as well, and said, "Probably not as well as Reina, but I'm not too terrible at it."

He paused for a few seconds before asking, "Will you teach me?"

He had this earnest shine to his eyes when I pulled away slightly, giving him a nod before he took my hand and led me away from where we were standing. It was before we moved further onto the dancefloor that I saw Reina giving me a knowing look, a slow grin forming on her face before she disappeared from sight. Teaching Rin how to dance was definitely interesting and not because he didn't know what he was doing. In fact, I secretly wondered if he already knew yet wanted a sneaky way of asking me to dance with him. We were so close to each other that I could feel his tail wrapped around his torso, his hands on my sides where my tail was tightly wrapped as well. While our bodies swayed to the music, I kept one arm thrown across his shoulders and one hand on his hip. Our faces were only a few inches apart and my gaze was locked with his as those bright blue eyes of his seemed to hold me there.

It felt like another hour had passed when Reina seemed to just appear to separate the two of us. "I let you guys dance for almost twenty minutes, which is fifteen minutes after Yukio and I stopped dancing," she told us with a mischievous grin. "Kas, if you want to go see the movie, we need to leave right now and head to the theater."

We quickly moved apart so that Reina could lead us outside where Rin's brother was already waiting. The two of them took the lead and Rin and I followed behind, chatting amiably while we headed to the train station nearby.

"What are we going to do for training tonight?" he asked me curiously.

"We're not training tonight, silly," I laughed, bumping him lightly with my shoulder. "It's my day off and I fully intend on making the best of it. No jobs, no responsibilities, just relaxation."

Just before Rin could say anything else, Reina called out to us to hurry before the train left. All four of us ran along until we reached the stairs to go up to the platform. It didn't take us very long to get back on the practically empty train, but once we made it we leaned back in our seats with a sigh and relaxed. Just before I could find a way to get comfy, I felt my phone begin to vibrate against my leg. With a sigh, I pulled the phone from the strap and stood up, walking over to the end of the car where the conversation couldn't be eavesdropped on.

"Hello, Miss Imai!" the always energetic voice of Mephisto said.

"You do realize that this is my day off, correct?" I quickly asked, cutting him off before he could attempt to say anything else.

"Yes, I do comprehend the gravity of the situation," he told me, his voice sounding strained all of a sudden. "I remember your threats the last time I tried to interrupt your day off, all of which were vulgar and mean spirited. However, this is a bit of an emergency situation."

"What's going on?" The whole phone call was beginning to set me on edge, but I wanted to wait to understand the situation before I let anxiety take over.

"First, what's your position in the city?"

"We're on a train heading toward the south end to the movie theater."

"We?"

"I'm with three friends."

"Wonderful," he said under his breath sarcastically before his tone of voice went back to normal. "We've got a situation at the north end of the city. It's nothing too serious, just a few of Lucifer's Seraphim have appeared near the barrier and I don't want them to breach it. I'm having an operative of mine take care of it, but I want you on call if Seraphim appear near your position."

"I can handle it if your 'operative' can't get here in time," I assured him with a sigh.

"That's wonderful! Now, since everyone knows that Seraphim can't stand bad storms—"

"I don't think _everyone_ knows that," I interrupted, but he carried on without a care.

"—I'm going to have to ask you to create one for me. I don't care if it's suspicious or natural looking, but just make the storm as crazy as possible to scramble the Seraphim's tracking."

"I'll start the process right now."

"Excellent!" Mephisto exclaimed. "I'll contact you if any other assistance is required from you!"

With that, he hung up and left me to stare out of a train window in exasperation before I put my phone back in the strap. All I could be thankful for was the fact that he wasn't completely vague on the matter. I let out a sigh before I concentrated on the surroundings outside the window, feeling with my mind the way the particles in the air shifted and collided. Higher up in the atmosphere, I forced them to slowly collide with each other until they began to pick up speed, the already night sky growing darker with each passing second. Rain began to fall and blue white lightning arced through the clouds before I could finally push the energy needed to keep the storm going to the back of my mind. It was then that I realized that someone had placed their hand on my shoulder and I turned around to see that it was Rin.

He looked very serious when he said, "I'm taking it that you are behind that storm?"

"That's right," I said nonchalantly, shrugging slightly and started walking back to our seats when he pulled me back.

"What's going on? Why are you just creating storms all of a sudden? Has something happened?"

"Nothing that you need to be concerned over," I assured him. "Mephisto said that there is a skirmish at the north end of the city and that his operative that he was sending needed the storm to throw off his opponents' tracking. He said that there shouldn't be any trouble heading our way and that was all he needed."

It was Rin's turn to shrug and he finally let go of me to lead the way back to our seats. It didn't take very long for us to get to the station that was rather close to the south end of the barrier surrounding the city. All four of us got off the train and Reina forced us to run the rest of the way to the movie theater, ignoring me when I yelled to her that it was only a little rain. When we reached the movie theater, Reina decided which scary movie we would be watching while the twins went to get the snacks. She picked out some remake of a good movie and we all headed inside to watch it. An hour in, I felt my phone go off, feeling relieved that I always kept it on vibrate so that I wouldn't disturb the others watching the movie with us. Rin gave me a suspicious look before I headed out into the hallway to answer the call.

"Mephisto again. Listen, I didn't want to call you, but I have no choice. There are Seraphim approaching the south end of the barrier and I think it's because they can sense you. I've already sent your familiar on his way, so he should be waiting for you outside with your sword."

"Alright, I'll take care of them," I sighed. "But remember, you owe me for this."

"Also," Mephisto said, disregarding my last comment, "there are a few matters of the utmost importance that I must discuss with you tomorrow morning."

"You can talk about them tomorrow afternoon," I said flatly. "It's a weekend and I don't wake up in the mornings."

"Fine, I'll just show up at your doorstep at one in the afternoon, so you better be ready."

I heard a definitive click on the other end and knew that he had hung up on me once more. I was getting very frustrated with that Demon. After gathering my thoughts, I quickly headed outside the theater and into a dark alley where I could already sense Conri waiting for me. He had my sword strapped to him somehow and I didn't question it before I took it off of him, clasping the chain around my body before I patted Conri on the head. He seemed pleased with himself before the both of us took off running towards the south, where a large Demonic presence was making itself known.

The closer to the barrier we got, the more lights I could see flying towards it, which I knew belonged to the Seraphim. "Conri, would you like to fight with me or hang back from the fight?" I asked my familiar as we got closer.

He gave me a roguish grin, one that never failed to surprise me, and said, _"You couldn't get me to hang back if you tried."_

I laughed a little before we both hopped a fence that led to the barrier. The whole area was lit up as about twenty Seraphim flew towards the barrier, which I was not going to allow. I pulled Oblivion free from its sheath before rushing at the closest Demon to the barrier and slashing through it with ease. With a burst of speed, I went after another as Conri found his target. A huge bolt of lightning came down from the storm when I forced an energy surge, taking down almost half of them as I kept cutting down every Seraphim that appeared in front of me.

When the last one had fallen, I thought we were in the clear when I heard a slow clap echo from behind me. I whipped around as a huge ball of light seemed to appear out of nowhere, the Demonic energy emanating from it instantly putting me on edge and I knew that I might be in trouble. Conri walked over to my side, growling fiercely as the light began to diminish and finally reveal the figure within. He was tall with spiky, slicked-back blonde hair and bright green eyes, ones that seemed sharp as he watched us. A long blonde tail covered in fur like Rin's lazily moved behind him and I hissed a little when it finally dawned on me that our situation really had just gotten worse.

"Lucifer," I gritted out, thinking about pointing my blade at him but knowing deep down that it was a bad idea. The storm picked up in my agitated state and the wind began to increase in its intensity.

"Lilith," he said, nodding his head in my direction.

"That's not my name," I informed him, feeling my anger getting worse. "It's Kasumi Imai."

"That's not a proper Demon name, so therefore I will not use it. Regardless, I did not come here to argue with you over semantics. I would like to make a request." When I wouldn't say a word in response, he shrugged and continued on. "I would like you to stop working for that fool Mephisto and come work for me in the Illuminati instead."

"I don't work for Mephisto," I told him as thunder echoed across the city. "I'm just an Exorcist that happens to work in the same area as him. The only Demon I work under is me and that is how it's going to stay."

"Fine then, if that's how it's going to be," Lucifer said, sounding annoyed when I turned around and began to head back to where my friends were waiting. It was then that he laid the biggest bombshell that I had ever heard in my life. "I guess I won't tell you about your past and how you came to exist."

I instantly froze, the storm raging around us was the only sound that could be heard before a huge bolt of lightning struck the ground between us. Conri knew deep down that something was wrong and was about to come closer when a huge gust of air erupted from around me. Transparent wings formed on my back over the scars and talons that looked like diamonds formed, scales of the same design appearing on my arms before I rushed at Lucifer. Out of the corner of my eye before everything went red from rage, I could see Conri shifting into his true Demon form and I knew I had a few valuable seconds before my familiar caught me. Using the wind to my advantage, I flew at the other Demon at max speed and was about to bring my blade down on him when I felt two hugely muscular arms wrap around me to turn me away from the Demon King.

"So much for that control of yours," Lucifer said dismissively. "Perhaps you should think on my offer some more. Who knows, you might decide that joining me is worthwhile."

Just like he had earlier, a large ball of light surrounded him and he was gone once more. That didn't stop the rage burning through its veins and I wanted nothing more than to go on a rampage. I turned my head to look back and saw that it was Conri that had a hold of me. He was now in his humanoid form, standing on two legs but quite a bit taller than a normal human. He was still covered head to toe in black fur and retained the head of a wolf, along with a tail that I could vaguely see behind him. He snapped his teeth near my jaw in an attempt to get me to calm down, but I wasn't having it. I thrashed in his hold some more, leading him to follow an old agreement between us for when I became out of control.

Without saying a word, he bit down onto my shoulder hard, which made me gasp and lose my hold over the storm. The rain dissipated as my struggles to get free slowly ceased while the blood flowed down my arm. The wings and scales I created were the next to go before I finally slumped in Conri's arms, panting heavily as I noticed the edges of my vision were getting darker.

_"I'm sorry I had to do that, Kas,"_ he said softly. _"You left me with no other choice."_

"It's fine," I told him tiredly, patting him on the arm. "I'm the one that made you promise me this all those years ago. I'd rather deal with blood loss issues for a day than the destruction that follows when I lose control."

_"Will you be alright?"_

"I think I'm going to need some rest," I said as I closed my eyes. I was already falling unconscious when I heard voices somewhere behind us, but I couldn't be bothered when everything went black.

When I finally came to, I could feel that my shoulder was already healing and it was wrapped in bandages, which must have happened after I passed out. I opened my eyes and turned my head to see four people sitting nearby, all of them watching me intently. "You can stop that now, it's getting creepy," I grumbled. It was then that I finally noticed that Rin and Yukio had a guilty expression on their faces. "Oh no, what happened?"

"Don't worry about them," Reina said with a small smile. "They seem to think that they've led a civilian into the world of Demons."

Before I could react, Rin hurriedly said, "We're sorry, Kas! I made them leave the movie after you did because I thought something was up! I didn't realize that you were going to go fight and I _especially_ didn't think you'd expose your Demon side! Yukio and I wouldn't have let Reina come with us if that had been the case!"

Reina smacked Rin's shoulder, making him flinch and stop speaking. "As I've already told you a million times, I am well acquainted with the denizens of Gehenna!"

"You… are?" I asked hesitantly.

Reina turned to me and grinned brightly. "Well, of course! I've been able to see Demons since I was very young! That was when my grandmother knew I had the family gift and began to teach me a few things! I guess you can say I've had a bit of Exorcist training already! I came here to study in the regular school before finding a way to ask if I could join the Cram School that Yukio has told me about!"

"So wait a minute! You've known about Demons this entire time?!"

"I've also known that you were a Demon as well, which is something that we can discuss tomorrow," she said with a wink. "Now, I think it's time for you to get some rest. It's really late and that shoulder isn't going to heal properly until you get more sleep."

Like the hurricane she was, she grabbed the twins and hurriedly pushed them from the room, leaving me with my familiar and a very big headache. With a sigh, I followed her instructions and fell asleep.


	5. New Addition

**Hello, dearest readers! I am back with another installment of Demonic Storm! I decided that I might as well hurry up and update now before I forget during the haze of all the studying I have to do for finals next week. Anyway, I hope you enjoy and also I suggest you go take a look at the fanfic that _Kuroi inazuma _has written. It's pretty good and well worth the read!**

* * *

**Chapter 5: New Addition**

_"Hey, wake up."_

I heard Conri call to me, but I definitely wasn't ready to face the day yet. I rolled over onto my side so that my back was facing him, which the wolf did not like one bit. Before I knew it, I had a cold, wet nose poking at my back and arms to startle me awake. When I became fed up with it, I turned back around to push him when he hopped back, giving me an amused look.

"What do you want?" I asked sleepily, rubbing at my eyes.

_"You're supposed to be meeting with Mephisto in ten minutes,"_ he reminded me.

"Did he tell you what this is all about?"

_"Why in the world would he tell me things?"_

"True. Alright, give me a minute and I'll get dressed."

With a yawn, I pulled myself out of bed and headed to the closet to get changed. Since it was the last day of the weekend and I didn't care, I grabbed a tank top and shorts, putting them on in record time while avoiding my sore shoulder. It had stopped bleeding entirely but it still sent jolts of pain through me when I wasn't careful. I motioned for Conri to follow me out of the room and we headed towards the main hall where the front door was located. I could already hear voices and when I came down the stairs, I could see all three of them waiting for me.

Rin was the first to look over in my direction and he gave me a bright smile. "There she is!" he called out happily. "Feeling any better?"

"My shoulder is still sore, but I'll live," I told him before hearing the knock at the door. "Now I need all three of you to leave. I'm going to be discussing something with Mephisto."

"You know we're just going to listen in on the conversation regardless, right?"

"Whatever, just stay out of sight."

I shooed them towards the stairs, Reina giggling to herself before they ran up them and disappeared around the corner. I could only hope that they would stay hidden before I finally opened the door to let in the always flamboyant Mephisto, who seemed to take up the entirety of the doorway. His green eyes immediately locked onto my shoulder and he grinned slightly, making me scowl at him while Conri growled.

"Did you allow yourself to be injured?" he asked mockingly.

"It's not important. What is important is the fact that you felt the need to discuss something with me."

He seemed to notice that I was not in the mood to be messed with and gulped a little before he grabbed something behind him to push it into my line of sight. Standing there was a boy that had to be fifteen years old with spiky silver hair, the tips edged with black. He had on a red shirt with some band name etched across it, a black hoodie with grey fur lining the hood, dark pants, and black shoes. He seemed a bit nervous, his yellow eyes looking down at the sword he carefully held in his hands like it was his treasure. It took me only a few seconds to realize from his scent and his energy that this was the guy that had been watching me a few days earlier. Not only that, but he was also a Demon. My eyes snapped back to Mephisto and I growled, making him look a bit hesitant now and he took a step back.

"What did I say about just dropping things on me so suddenly? Do you not remember what I did the last time or am I going to have to repeat the dog crate incident again?"

Mephisto gulped a little before the stranger finally looked over at him and hissed, "I thought you said that you were going to talk to her."

"I never had the chance to until now! She's a slippery eel when she wants to be and I couldn't get ahold of her until last night!"

As they argued, I looked over at Conri, who shook his head in exasperation over the whole situation. I finally had enough and let a rather strong breeze pick up around all of us, silencing them immediately once they noticed. I could hear the almost inaudible sound of Rin laughing before I let the breeze die down and concentrated on Mephisto again.

"Do you plan on explaining what's going on now?" I asked, glaring at him fiercely.

"Now, calm down, Kasumi," he said, holding up his hands in a nonthreatening manner. "There's no need to be hostile. I intended on telling you the purpose of this little visit."

"Any day now would be great."

The new guy let out a short laugh before he fell silent again when Mephisto glared at him. "This is Takeshi Yukimura and I'm enrolling him into the regular academy and Cram School so he can train to be an Exorcist. He's a half Demon that I want you to look out for."

"Do you intend on making me babysit every young Demon you come across or is this the last one?"

Takeshi didn't seem very happy about what I said, frowning slightly before Mephisto spoke up again. "No, Takeshi is a special case like Rin. He won't even need training unless he so chooses because I've already taken care of it. All you'll have to do is watch over him so that he doesn't get into trouble."

I looked at the both of them seriously, not saying a word for the longest time before I sighed. "Alright, I will do this," I told them, watching as they both looked as if they had one when I continued, "but I have a couple demands that must be met first."

The Demon King of Time narrowed his eyes in suspicion before asking, "And what are those demands?"

"I have a friend named Reina Tsukino," I began to explain, hearing Reina's tiny gasp at the top of the stairs. "She came here to get into the Cram School. She's already had some training with her grandmother, so she's already on her way to becoming an Exorcist. You're going to enroll her into the Cram School."

"Done," Mephisto said with a scowl before pulling a small gold key from his pocket and handing it to me. "She may start tomorrow as a Page. What's your other demand?"

"Reina gets to move into the west wing of the dorm with me. Her current living arrangement is expensive. I don't want her killing herself trying to balance regular school, Cram School, and a job."

He looked like he was about to argue, but decided not to bother with it. "Also done. Now that I've wasted a lot of time here, I must leave. You better watch out for your newest charge or _you'll _be the one hanging from shark infested waters. Now, Takeshi, I would like a word outside before I go."

When they both went outside and the door shut, I could hear the sounds of running and turned to see an excited Reina charging towards me. With a yelp, I quickly ran away from her and she chased me around the main hall with her arms outstretched. "Just get it over with, Kas!" she called out, laughing when she got closer. "I'm not going to stop chasing you until I hug you for what you just did for me!"

"How about just telling me thank you?" I called back to her as we ran around in a big circle. "That's what normal humans do to show gratitude, Rei!"

It was as I was running closer to the stairs where Rin and Yukio were now standing after coming down into the main hall that Rin thought it was a good idea to help. He swiftly wrapped his arms around my waist and leaned back a little so that he could lift me into the air. I yelped again, kicking the air in an attempt to get free, but no such luck until he finally set me down when Reina ran closer. When Takeshi came back into the main hall, the first thing he caught sight of was Reina standing at my side with her arms around my neck and a bright smile on her face while I stood there, scowling unhappily and tail twitching like an angry cat.

"What… just happened?" Takeshi asked hesitantly, looking very confused.

"Apparently hugging isn't the proper way to show gratitude," Rin chuckled.

"Hey, stay out of this, Firefly," I huffed, crossing my arms in annoyance.

With a vein popping on his forehead, he took a menacing step toward me before yelling, "Watch your mouth, Windbag, or I be forced to shut it for you!"

There was a solid five seconds of silence between us as we glared daggers at each other, sparks seeming to fly just before we moved into action to attack. Yukio and Reina must have been anticipating this for Reina quickly grabbed hold of my tail, making sure not to hurt me but remaining firm enough with her grip as she avoided the spikes on top. Yukio wasn't as gentle, pulling on Rin's with one hand so hard that the half Demon fell backwards onto the floor. Conri ran over to us when I tried to pull free from Reina's hold and grabbed the back of my tank top with his teeth to help her keep me in place until the both of us calmed down.

"Rin, how many times do I have to tell you not to pick a fight with her?" Yukio asked in exasperation, pushing his glasses further up on his nose so that the lens flashed with the reflected light. "She can easily take you down without feeling any remorse."

Just before Yukio finished his last sentence, I heard the new kid wander up behind me to reach his hand out and softly ask, "Hey, what are these scars from?"

Regardless of the fact that Reina had a hold of my tail, I flicked the spiked tip faster than Takeshi could react, turning my head slightly to see out of the corner of my eye a razor thin line of red appear on the palm of his hand. Silence fell over the room again as he took a startled step back, looking at his hand and dabbing an index finger lightly on the cut. "Lesson one," I stated, making sure to sound calm when I wasn't feeling it, "don't touch those scars. I really disapprove and you've been warned."

"I'd listen to her, newbie!" Rin called out to him from the floor before he stood up. "She almost broke my wrist when I touched them. She took it easy on you."

Takeshi didn't seem to approve of being called newbie, seeming as if he was about to speak up on that fact when I decided it was best to change the subject. "How about I show you to the east wing where you can pick out your room?" I suggested, reaching over to pat Conri on the head so that he would let go of my tank top. The silver-haired half Demon nodded and I lead him over to the stairs before calling out, "Reina, don't forget that we've got something of great importance to discuss as soon as I'm done!"

"Of course!" she laughed before starting a chat with the twins.

I headed up the stairs with Takeshi, Conri walking at my side and glancing at the new addition once in a while. When we walked into the east wing, he spoke up. "Is that wolf Demon your familiar?"

"That's right," I said with a slight smile. "His name is Conri. He's been by my side for as long as I can remember."

"What about the other three people?"

"Well, I've known Reina for a few years now. She and I met during her very first class at True Cross Academy. As for Rin and Yukio, I've only known them for about a week, but they're pretty cool so far."

We stopped talking until I reached the section of hallway where Rin and Yukio had a room, taking a step towards the wall and motioning that he could pick out which room he wanted. He seemed a little hesitant, almost as if he had never done this before, until he finally began to walk slowly down the hallway himself. I watched as he walked towards the end of the hallway to a room that was opposite of the old office. I could remember that the room he stood in front of held a huge window that overlooked the forest behind the dorm and he called out that this was the one he wanted after opening the door to see for himself.

"Now, there's only the bare minimum in that room right now," I informed him as I closed the distance between us, leaning against the doorframe and watching as he looked around the room he had picked. Due to the fact that it was empty of everything but a bed, desk, and bookshelf, the whole room felt large and spacious. Regardless of this fact, he looked like a kid in a candy store, making me wonder again if this was the first time he had a proper room for himself that he got to pick out on his own. "What did you discuss with Mephisto outside? Was it about when all of your belongings would arrive here?"

Instantly, Takeshi froze in place, his whole body looking tense before he said a word. "Umm… yeah, we talked about the fact that they would show up tomorrow," he said hurriedly, acting a bit shifty in the process. He placed his blade on his bed before turning and giving me a nervous smile. "I don't have a lot of possessions, but he said that he'd send someone to bring me what little I have."

His attitude seemed a little suspicious as if he was hiding something, but I decided to shrug and drop that topic for now. I was about to walk out again when Reina ran up to me, an amused grin on her face before she grabbed me by the wrist with both hands. "Come with me!" she said, slightly out of breath as she tugged on my arm. Both Conri and Takeshi gave her a confused look before she said, "There's something funny that you need to see!"

She dragged me along with both Demons following behind until we reached the dorm kitchen. Loud sounds of yelling and clangs could be heard and I could only wonder what was going on when she led me over to the counter that overlooked the kitchen. Once there, I had to cover my mouth with my free hand to stifle my laughter. Standing in the kitchen near the window was Rin, panting a little as he dodged a knife that was thrown at him from out of nowhere. A large metal fork was thrown next so that he had to jump towards the door, which gave me a good view of the stove. It looked like he had been cooking and I knew what this meant.

"He's already infuriated Ukobach, I see," I snickered. "I wondered how long this would take." I shook off Reina's hold on me and headed into the kitchen, moving faster than a blur to catch the huge butcher knife that had been aimed at Rin's head and jumping up onto the counter next to the sink. "Listen here, you two. I'd really prefer if this doesn't come down to death by flying cutlery. You might as well show yourself, Ukobach, so that this can be settled once and for all."

"What is she talking about?" I heard Yukio ask Reina, who only shrugged.

There was a flash of light that seemed to blind everyone before it faded, revealing a tiny Demon whose form was reminiscent of a satyr. It had mostly purple fur with tiny yellow horns and it glared fiercely at Rin with bright yellow eyes. "Now, here's what's going to happen!" I announced. "Since the only thing that Rin seems to be really good at is cooking – at least, that is what I've heard from Yukio – you two are going to have a cooking battle while the rest of us leave."

I watched the sparks fly between the two before I hopped off of the counter and headed out of the kitchen. Reina walked over to me and asked, "What are we going to do while they fight it out?"

"First of all, you and I have something to talk about. Don't think that I've forgotten, Rei. We can go take care of that right now," I told her before turning to Yukio. "While I'm having a chat with Reina, would you mind showing Takeshi around? You can just show him around the old dorm for now and I can take care of showing him to his new classes. I don't mind doing it a second time for a different person."

As I walked away with Reina and Conri, I gave them a wave without looking back as we headed to the west wing. On a whim, I thought that going to the library that I loved so much would be the ideal place to have such a serious discussion. It was a good plan since it was quiet and the light filtering in from the windows kept everything bright in the room. I found a couch to sit on with Conri while Reina took the chair perpendicular to it so that we could look at each other. It never failed to amaze me how Reina could always look so at home, no matter where she was or who she was with.

"So," she said, sounding like her normal bubbly self, "where would you like me to start?"

"How about you start from the beginning?" I told her seriously. "You keep telling me that you can see parts of the future. How are you able to do that?"

"Then you'll want to know the past first," she said before leaning back in her chair. "About a century ago, one of my female ancestors came across a man lying in the middle of a field. He was severely injured and unconscious, bleeding out all over the ground. Even though she didn't know if this man was dangerous, she did her best to carry him back to her home and treat his injuries. As she tended to him, she took notice of his dark red hair like fire that seemed so different for her little town. It was when she was almost finished with bandaging him up that he finally came to, opening his eyes and focusing forest green irises onto her. From that moment on, everything for my family line changed.

"The man, soon discovered to be named Gabriel, vowed to stay with her for as long as needed until he could fulfill his debt to her. For a year, they stayed together and grew closer as friends until there came to be a moment when my ancestor was attacked by a group of thugs, not knowing that they were actually Demons in disguise. They threatened to kill her if she didn't tell them where Gabriel was, which she refused to do. When it seemed like all hope was lost and that she would die, Gabriel appeared in a blaze of fiery light, wings of golden fire blazing on his back as he killed the Demons singlehandedly. Once this task was done, he told her that he was an Archangel that needed to go back to his home in the Heavens, but he loved her dearly. Months later, a child was born with the same fiery, dark red hair and forest green eyes that exhibited powers of telepathy and telekinesis. He stayed with them until the day that our first ancestor died, returning to the Heavens to watch over all of us that are branded a child of Gabriel."

"So… you're descended from an actual Angel?" I finally asked once the shock wore off.

"That's right! Sometimes, the gift from Gabriel skips a generation or two, depending on the soul of the child. It skipped my mother, but then again she was a horrible person that abandoned me when I was five. She left me with my grandmother, who also has the gift. She explained to me why I could sometimes hear the thoughts of other people as a child and what to do when I came across someone whose thoughts I couldn't hear. She told me that nine times out of ten, it would be a Demon in disguise."

"You can hear a person's thoughts?"

"Only when I want to. When I was a child, it was something beyond my control but my grandmother taught me a few tricks to keep it in check. Now, I only listen in to a person's thoughts for a brief second, just to see who in the room is a Demon so we can avoid them."

That was when I realized that there was something about what she had just said that didn't fit right. "Then I don't understand. If what you said is true, then you could sense the fact that I was a Demon by the fact that you couldn't hear my thoughts. You knew, yet you decided to sit with me and become my friend."

She gave me a wry smile before explaining what I was confused over. "Before Gabriel left for the Heavens after his human wife's death, he imparted a piece of knowledge down to his daughter, a prophesy that she had to pass down to the next child of Gabriel that possessed his gift. He told her that a day would come where one of his children would come across a female Demon with dark hair and sharp golden eyes with pupils that were slits. She would have a huge wolf familiar by her side and a hostile aura that was meant to keep others away. Gabriel told her not to let it fool her for it was just a defense mechanism to protect other people, regardless of the fact that this Demon is the one in need of protecting. He never did go into the specifics behind why this Demon needed protecting, but when I first saw you that day I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that you had to be the one he was speaking of. That's one reason why I spoke to you that day. Another reason was that you just looked so… sad."

It was all so hard to take in, but it didn't change the level of trust I held in Reina. She never once lied to me about anything when I asked her questions and I could understand why she didn't want to tell me that she knew Demons existed. For most humans, that was a terrifying ordeal to see all the different creatures of Gehenna that wandered about in Assiah. If she had mentioned it in the very beginning, I might not have decided to become friends with her. In my state of mind during that time, I would have instantly mistrusted her and figured that she would one day stab me in the back.

With a light sigh, I reached over to pat her hand that was resting on the arm of the chair and gave her a small smile. "Thank you for telling me all of this, Rei. I really appreciate it."

"I appreciate what you did for me more, Kas," she said earnestly, clasping my hand in both of hers. "Not only did you get me into the Cram School, which I felt would take me at least six more months, you even convinced the Director to let me stay here! I seriously don't know how I can ever repay you for all you've done."

"You deciding to be my friend that day is more than enough." I looked over at Conri, who had been watching the entire thing silently, and smiled at him. "Conri, I think it's time for you to finally talk."

_"I thought this day would never come,"_ he sighed, making Reina jump a little.

"He can talk?" she asked in amazement. "I just thought that familiars were silent or that they only talk with the person they're bonded with!"

_"I was pretending to be an actual dog so that you wouldn't think anything was amiss."_

Reina looked at me and winked. "He's a good actor then. If I hadn't known that he was a familiar, I would have definitely thought he was a dog."

I stood up from the couch and pulled Reina to her feet before saying, "Anyway, I'm sure that you'll want to move all of your stuff into this dorm. We can go pick out your room now."

"No need," she said, shaking her head slightly. "I'll take the one across the hall from yours."

"Alright, if you say so," I laughed before pulling two keys out from my pocket, one gold and one silver, and handing the small gold one to Reina. "Keep this key on you at all times. It opens the door into the Cram School, one that you can open from any door available. That used to be my key when I was training to become an Exorcist."

"Then I can't take it from you!"

"Yes, you can. I forced Mephisto into making me a Skeleton Key. I can go anywhere as long as I think clearly about the place in my mind."

We walked over to the door and I inserted the key into the lock, picturing Reina's room in my head as I twisted the key. She looked on in amazement as she realized that what I had said was true before we walked into her room and I shut the door behind us. Conri came along for moral support as Reina and I packed away her things into two large suitcases, the big wolf carrying her pillows and a couple stuffed animals after I wrapped and tied her blankets around him to keep them in place. Once we made sure that everything that belonged to her was packed away, I rolled a suitcase along behind me as I walked up to the doorway again, twisting the key in the lock as I thought about the bedroom that was across the hall from my own.

Reina gasped a little in surprise when she saw that this room was twice the size of her old one and immediately began to unpack. She wouldn't allow either of us to help her, instead going into her hurricane mode and sweeping through the room to place everything in its proper places within five minutes. All Conri and I could do was watch in astonishment until she was finished. We briefly went into my room after where she promptly informed me that I needed to decorate some more.

I showed her around the dorm until I finally decided that it was time to head back to the kitchen, the only two left around were Ukobach and Rin, both of whom were lying on the ground with happy looks on their faces. When Ukobach noticed me walk into the room, he struggled to sit up, gave me a respectful nod, and got up to go prepare us a meal. I helped Rin to his feet, who was still mumbling something to himself, before finally straightening up. He seemed rather happy about the whole ordeal and gave me a smirk.

"He and I have reached an agreement," Rin said, nodding in Ukobach's direction. "I guess you can say that we now understand each other through the bond of cooking."

"That's awfully good to hear since you did trespass on his territory earlier," I reminded him with a laugh. "He'll only let me cook in here once in a great while."

"Why?"

"Well… I may have had a slight mishap when trying to make breakfast," I said with a wan smile.

_"He let her make pancakes and she burned them so bad that they were no longer recognizable,"_ Conri said, wagging his tail a little. _"He made her take cooking lessons from him until she was slightly proficient at the craft."_

I shrugged sheepishly before saying, "Hey, I know that I'm not perfect. Cooking is my fatal flaw. I am willing to learn so I can get better though so that has to count for something!"

"You once burned popcorn in a microwave, so I hope you have improved," Reina reminded me with a grin.

I crossed my arms with a huff and looked away. "I'm not that terrible anymore, Rei! There's no need to act like that!"

Rin chuckled softly. "Don't worry, I was pretty bad at cooking in the beginning as well. All it takes to become better is lots of practice. If you'd like, I could help you get better at cooking in exchange for you training me to fight!"

"She'll do it!" Reina spoke for me, pushing me closer to Rin and ignoring my protests. "Start helping her now! Then she can make me food and I don't have to worry about being accidentally poisoned!"

As Ukobach cooked lunch, Rin taught me a few different dishes to make, but we focused solely on rectifying my terrible mistake at making pancakes. It was actually one that Conri would eat for me. He knew that in all the years that I had been alive, I didn't cook for myself because I was absolutely terrible at it. When Ukobach finished with making lunch while Rin assisted, Yukio and Takeshi arrived soon after and we all sat down at the table together. I could tell that Takeshi wasn't used to all the loud chatter that was going on and it again made me wonder what his life had been like before he arrived on our doorstep. I resigned myself to interrogating Mephisto about this half Demon in question and focused on the laughter that seemed to be a theme for the rest of the day.


End file.
